More than 18 months after the mother of a student and a teacher from Shaheen School were jailed for two weeks on sedition charges following a play staged in the school, the Karnataka police has admitted that their officers erred while questioning students in the school multiple times. In an affidavit filed in the Karnataka High Court, Nagesh DL, the current Superintendent of Police of Bidar district, stated that officers were uniformed with armed weapons while questioning students in February 2020 and this was against the rules. The SP has also informed the court that in a report on August 31 2021 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 noted that while Basaveshwara Hira was not in uniform while conversing with the students during the questioning, his subordinate officers were uniformed with armed weapons, thus violating 86 (5) of the Juvenile Justice Model Rules 2016. The Bidar SP also noted that oral enquiries with the police officials involved in the case suggested that the subordinate officers did not interact with the students. The affidavit was filed two weeks after the Karnataka High Court pulled up the state police over its interrogation of school children.
Basaveshwara Hira has since been transferred to the post of DySP of Chincholi sub-division in Kalaburagi district. He was earlier the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of Bidar district. On January 26 2020, the Bidar New Town police station received a complaint from a right wing activist Nilesh Rakshala about a play staged in Shaheen Primary and High School five days earlier. Based on the complaint, police officials led by Basaveshwara Hira arrested Nazbunissa, the mother of a student, and Fareeda Begum, a teacher at the school.
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 Dakkani language, questioned the need for CAA and NRC. It had a line that was allegedly derogatory to the Prime Minister.
Nazbunissa and Fareeda Begum remained in jail for two weeks as the police actively pursued the sedition charges. A series of delays - the judge was absent, prosecutors were missing - postponed the bail hearing for more than two weeks after the arrests were made. On February 14 2020, the district court granted bail to the duo and stated that there is nothing to show that the offence of sedition was committed. "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 said.
Though the women were released from jail, no action was taken against the police officers for their lapse during investigation. 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 under 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.