New Delhi, 15 March (H.S.): Following habeas corpus petitions in the Delhi High Court, Delhi Police released 10 social activists from unlawful detention, informing the court during a special Sunday hearing before Justices Navin Chawla and Ravindra Dudeja.The bench issued notices questioning the basis and circumstances of the detentions, ordering preservation of CCTV footage from relevant areas, with the next hearing set for March 27.

Counsel Colin Gonsalves (for Ehsan ul Haq), Shaharukh Alam (for Rajbir), and Jasdeep Dhillon (for Sagarika Rajoora) argued police acted only after media spotlight, decrying the force's overreach; police counsel Sanjeev Bhandari countered that all were released post-FIR, deeming the matter non-trivial and opposing FIR disclosure outside court.

Rajoora's lawyer highlighted activist Rudra's continued undeclared custody and alleged torture at a secondary site, prompting the court to direct police to locate him by Monday; Rudra's petition hearings begin March 16. Alam noted plainclothes abductions to unknown sites without magistrate production—this marks the second such incident for these activists, echoing an eight-month-old unlawful week-long detention of Rajoora's sister Lakshita, who vanished near Delhi University's Vijay Nagar office on March 13 evening.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar