The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice on a writ petition filed by the wife of journalist Satyam Verma challenging his preventive detention under the National Security Act (NSA), 1980, in connection with the Noida industrial workers’ protest in April this year.
The bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan were already hearing a separate plea filed by Keshaw Anand alleging custodial torture of his brother Aditya Anand and co-accused Rupesh Roy, both arrested for the same protests. Earlier, the Court had issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and directed the authorities to produce the accused physically before it, while orally observing that the State should not treat the protesters as terrorists for demanding fair wages.
On Tuesday, Aditya Anand and Rupesh Roy were produced before the Bench, which briefly interacted with them and expressed satisfaction over their condition. However, the Court ordered continuation of their judicial custody.
Appearing for Keshaw Anand, Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves urged the Court to ensure that the accused were not transferred to police custody due to apprehensions of custodial torture. He also sought an independent inquiry into the allegations of torture. The Court kept the matter pending but clarified that proceedings relating to bail and other remedies may continue independently of the present petition.
In the matter concerning Satyam Verma, Advocate Shahrukh Alam informed the Court that the petitioner had challenged both the detention order and the clubbing of multiple FIRs against him.
The plea contends that the 60-year-old journalist was not present during the protests and was targeted because he publishes the Mazdoor Bigul newspaper, administers its Facebook page, and is associated with the Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India.
According to the detention order issued by the Gautam Buddha Nagar District Magistrate, Verma allegedly incited workers to engage in violence, armed disturbances, and large-scale arson, besides promoting leftist ideology through literature published by Pustak Pratisthan. Authorities also claimed that books containing quotations from Mao Tse-Tung and other anti-democratic material were recovered from his office.
Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj informed the Court that a habeas corpus petition challenging the detention is already pending before the Allahabad High Court. Taking note of this submission, the Bench declined to grant interim relief at this stage.
The Court tagged the petition with the pending custodial torture case and allowed the petitioner to pursue other legal remedies notwithstanding the pendency of the proceedings before the Supreme Court.
The petition relating to Aditya Anand states that he, a software engineer and social worker, and Rupesh Roy, an auto driver, had participated in protests demanding higher minimum wages and better working conditions for labourers.
It is alleged that Aditya was arrested on April 17 from Tiruchirappalli railway station in Tamil Nadu without disclosure of grounds of arrest or an arrest memo and was denied access to his family and legal counsel. The plea further claims that despite representations made to authorities in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, he was transported to Uttar Pradesh without transit remand.
Subsequently, he was booked under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Sections 191, 115, 121, 125, 351, 352 and 61, along with Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act.
As regards Rupesh Roy, the petition alleges that he was subjected to severe custodial torture and falsely implicated through fabricated disclosures and recoveries. It further states that Roy, who had addressed labour protests, was picked up by police from Botanical Garden metro station.
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