CPI(M)'s Brinda Karat Writes to Delhi Police Commissioner Over Illegal Harassment of Young Woman by Police Officers

New Delhi: Senior CPI(M) leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Brinda Karat has written to Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golchha seeking urgent intervention after a young woman faced illegal detention, phone surveillance, and virtual house arrest at the hands of personnel from the New Rajinder Nagar police station, days ahead of a planned public demonstration by Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).

In her letter, Karat said she was contacted on June 6 by Aahana Singh Kaith, a postgraduate student who had just completed her final examinations, who narrated a series of incidents beginning the previous day. According to the victim's account, a group of police personnel entered a gym in New Rajinder Nagar on June 5 around 12.30 pm, identified her (Aahana), and took her to the parking premises of a nearby coaching institute where she was interrogated without a warrant about her family background, education, and political views.

Aahana has informed that the police warned her against attending a demonstration by the CJP the following day, and pressured her to act as a police informer by reporting others who planned to participate. Her phone was also checked without any legal authority, Brinda Karat said in the letter.

The harassment continued into the evening, when a woman police personnel visited Aahana's flat, identified herself as a Personal Security Officer deputed to monitor her movements, and instructed her to share her live location with the police station and refrain from leaving home.

Brinda Karat stated in the letter that after she personally called the police personnel involved, Aahana received yet another call from an officer asking whether she had stepped out.

"A young woman is picked up by predominantly male police without any warrant; she is interrogated, again without any warrant; her phone is checked, her privacy violated — she is placed under surveillance and virtual house arrest without any charges or explanation," the CPI(M) leader wrote, calling the actions wholly illegal and demanding that officers responsible, including those who issued the orders, be held accountable.

Brinda Karat also questioned how many other young people had faced similar intimidation ahead of the demonstration, noting the contradiction between the Delhi Police granting permission for the CJP gathering while simultaneously threatening individuals not to attend.