K'taka Police admits its officers in uniform interrogating Shaheen School students was against rules
Bidar: Karnataka Police on Friday admitted in the court that its officers erred while questioning school students in a case pertaining to a play staged in their school, by wearing the uniform and carrying arms during the questioning.
Nagesh DL, the current Superintendent of Police of Bidar district, filed an affidavit in the Karnataka High Court on Friday stating that the officers were uniformed with armed weapons while questioning students in February 2020 and this was against the rules.
The SP further informed the High Court that he has submitted a report to the Director-General and Inspector General of Police (DG-IGP) he has recommended disciplinary action against the investigating police officers in the case.
"I state that it is the responsibility of the investigating officer (the then Deputy Superintendent of Police Basaveshwara Hira) to ensure that strict compliance of sub-rule (5) of Rule 86 of the Juvenile Justice Model Rules 2016 and in view of the same and keeping in mind the order dated 16-08-2021 passed by the Honourable Court, I have sent a report dated 31-08-2021 to the Director-General and Inspector General of Police (DG-IGP) to take appropriate disciplinary action against the concerned persons," read the affidavit submitted in court.
The affidavit was filed two weeks after the Karnataka High Court pulled up the state police over its interrogation of school children.
The police had last year arrested the mother of a student and a teacher from Shaheen School and charged them under Sedition charges following a play staged in Shaheen School in Bidar.
Police officials led by Basaveshwara turned up at the school five times, including in uniform, to question the students who were in the play. The police asked questions about who scripted the play and chose the dialogues which were in it. In particular, the police officials repeatedly questioned Ayesha*, Nazbunissa's daughter and one of the students involved in the play, for the dialogues uttered in it. The seemingly innocuous play, performed in the Dakkani language, questioned the need for CAA and NRC. It had a line that was allegedly derogatory to the Prime Minister.
"The dialogue in my considered opinion does not go to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection towards the government," the district judge Managoli Premavathi had said while granting bail to the duo on February 14, 2020.
In August 2021, a Karnataka High Court bench of former Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice NS Sanjay Gowda heard a petition filed by Nayana Jyothi Jhawar and South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring. The bench stated that the police action was a serious violation of the Juvenile Justice Act. The court noted that the Special Juvenile Police Unit for Children sub-rule 5 stated that police officers shall wear plain clothes when interacting with children and for dealing with a girl child, women police personnel will be engaged.
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US SC rejects 26/11 attack accused Tahawwur Rana’s plea seeking stay on his extradition to India
New York, Apr 7 (PTI): The US Supreme Court has rejected 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana's appeal seeking a stay on his extradition to India, moving him closer to being handed over to Indian authorities to face justice.
Rana, 64, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles.
He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks. Headley conducted a recce of Mumbai before the attacks by posing as an employee of Rana’s immigration consultancy.
Rana had submitted an ‘Emergency Application For Stay Pending Litigation of Petition For Writ of Habeas Corpus' on February 27, 2025, with Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit Elena Kagan.
Kagan had denied the application earlier last month.
Rana had then renewed his ‘Emergency Application for Stay Pending Litigation of Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus previously addressed to Justice Kagan’, and requested that the renewed application be directed to US Chief Justice John Roberts.
An order on the Supreme Court website noted that Rana's renewed application had been “distributed for Conference” on April 4 and the “application” has been “referred to the Court.”
A notice on the Supreme Court website Monday said that “Application denied by the Court.”
Rana was convicted in the US of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the terrorist plot in Denmark and one count of providing material support to Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashker-e-Taiba which was responsible for the attacks in Mumbai.
New York-based Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra had told PTI that Rana had made his application to the Supreme Court to prevent extradition, which Justice Kagan denied on March 6. The application was then submitted before Roberts, “who has shared it with the Court to conference so as to harness the entire Court’s view.”
The Supreme Court justices are Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
In his emergency application, Rana had sought a stay of his extradition and surrender to India pending litigation (including exhaustion of all appeals) on the merits of his February 13.
In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates US law and the UN Convention Against Torture "because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, the petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture."
"The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks,” the application said.
The application also said that his “severe medical conditions” render extradition to Indian detention facilities a “de facto" death sentence in this case.
The US Supreme Court denied Rana's petition for a writ of certiorari relating to his original habeas petition on January 21. The application notes that on that same day, newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio had met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Washington on February 12 to meet with Trump, Rana’s counsel received a letter from the Department of State, stating that “on February 11, 2025, the Secretary of State decided to authorise” Rana’s "surrender to India,” pursuant to the “Extradition Treaty between the United States and India”.
Rana’s Counsel requested from the State Department the complete administrative record on which Secretary Rubio based his decision to authorize Rana’s surrender to India.
The Counsel also requested immediate information of any commitment the United States has obtained from India with respect to Rana’s treatment. “The government declined to provide any information in response to these requests,” the application said.
It added that given Rana’s underlying health conditions and the State Department’s findings regarding the treatment of prisoners, it is very likely “Rana will not survive long enough to be tried in India".
During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Modi in the White House in February, President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.
A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations in Mumbai.
