The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine a plea challenging the preventive detention of former journalist Satyam Verma under the National Security Act in connection with the Noida workers’ protest violence case, but refused to grant him interim relief, Live Law reported.
A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the Union government on a petition filed by Verma’s wife challenging the detention order, Bar and Bench reported.
“For now, we can’t grant you any interim relief because the validity of the detention order has to be seen,” Live Law quoted Nagarathna as having told the petitioner.
The protest had been held on April 13.
The 60-year-old former journalist from Lucknow was among two persons detained under the National Security Act on May 13. The Act allows for long periods of detention without trial up to a year.
Verma and 25-year-old Aakriti Chaudhary are members of the Mazdoor Bigul Dasta, a workers’ organisation.
The police alleged that the role played by the two was “significant in instigating violence, arson and creating chaos” during the protest. Verma and Chaudhary “provoked” persons in different areas to “disturb public order”, the police alleged.
The police have also alleged that Verma received money from foreign accounts to incite the violence, Bar and Bench reported.
The detention order further accused him of using “leftist” writings and literature to encourage younger people to join rebel organisations, according to Live Law.
The order also claimed that books containing quotes by Mao Zedong and other material described as “objectionable” and “anti-democratic” were recovered from Verma’s office.
His wife’s petition argued that Verma was not present during the protests and had been targeted for being the publisher and writer of the Mazdoor Bigul newspaper, administering its Facebook page and for being associated with the Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India.
She also argued that the case was not only about Verma’s allegedly illegal arrest, but also about a “concerted deployment of arbitrary, dragnet and fabricated criminal proceedings to silence the labour class and its democratic allies”, The Hindu reported.
The petition before the Supreme Court also questioned the clubbing of three first information reports against him.
Verma had been picked up from a publisher’s office in Lucknow and was allegedly asked to delete an article about workers because it could “stir disturbance”, Bar and Bench reported.
He reportedly agreed to take it down while maintaining that it was only about workers’ rights.
During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj told the bench that a habeas corpus petition concerning Verma’s detention was already pending before the Allahabad High Court.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear the matter again in July.
The protests
On April 13, about 40,000 to 45,000 workers from several industrial units had gathered in parts of the city to press long-standing demands that their salaries be increased. The protests came amid increasing gas prices because of the supply disruption caused by the conflict in West Asia.
The protests had turned violent. Videos widely shared on social media showed some protesters throwing stones and vandalising property, as security personnel tried to bring the situation under control.
On April 14, more than 350 persons had been arrested in connection with the violence.
Witnesses had alleged that the police personnel deployed to contain the violence on April 13 had beaten up the protesters.
On April 16, a video surfaced online showing police personnel assaulting women. The video was shared on social media platforms by several users, including the Uttar Pradesh Congress, who alleged that it showed police personnel in Noida lathi-charging and manhandling women workers on the day of wage hike protests.
The police commissionerate in Gautam Buddha Nagar district denied this. It said that “prima facie, the video appears to be morphed or AI-generated and does not seem to be from Noida, but rather from some other location.”
However, eyewitnesses, who did not want to be identified because of the fear of facing backlash from the authorities, told Scroll that the video accurately captured the scene they had witnessed.
Scroll also used geolocation analysis and matched the video against a press photo to establish that the location was indeed Block A and Block B of Noida’s Sector 6. Scroll visited the spot and spoke to several people who had seen the police assault. Questions sent to Commissioner of Police Laxmi Singh at the time did not elicit a response.
Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.
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