Thread by @Article14live

“She won’t stop crying”

With no local lawyer ready to fight her case & threats allegedly made to Delhi lawyers, family of traumatised Muslim law student narrates how she spent 54 days in jail before #SupremeCourt gave bail. @Samriddhi0809 reports

1/11

article-14.com/post/after-54-…

Sonu Mansoori’s ordeal began when lawyers accosted the 21-yr-old for recording bail hearing of a #BajrangDal man in a court in Indore on 28 Jan. They searched her, found Rs 1 lakh & accused her of being “spy” for the banned Popular Front of India



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All #SupremeCourt trials are telecast & there is no ban on recording court proceedings. Sonu said the money was surety for a client of the lawyer she worked for. The police detained her for 6 hrs & filed an FIR after midnight.

3/11

On a complaint from the lawyer defending the #BajrangDal man, accused of abusing the Prophet, the police filed charges of cheating, impersonation & criminal conspiracy, none of which match what happened, her lawyers say.

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Despite the lack of evidence, on 29 Ja, a magistrate remanded Sonu to judicial custody. As the days passed, no lawyer would represent her. Eventually, 4 Delhi lawyers did, but they returned after threats, they alleged.

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“Instead of detaining the group of lawyers for shooting a video of her, humiliating & publicly frisking her, thus violating her privacy, the police made a case against her,” said one of her lawyers, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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On 17 March, senior advocate Dushyant Dave argued for bail in the #SupremeCourt, where Justices Ajay Rastogi & Bela Trivedi were initially reluctant to bypass the high court. They agreed when Dave told them no lawyer would represent Sonu.

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5 days later on 23 May, Sonu was granted bail. Her family says the once-confident young woman–the only one of 6 siblings to get a higher education–emerged from prison a wreck, has locked herself in a room & won’t stop crying.

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“She keeps crying about all that she has lost,” said her elder brother Iqbal, 39, a spice merchant. “She has lost the chance to give (third semester law) exams & probably a chance to get any government job because of this case.”

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Police did not explain why they filed an FIR against Sonu. Though she is free on bail, the case against her stands. It follows a pattern of arrests of minorities with scant or no evidence after complaints by those linked to #Hindu right-wing outfits.

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“Article 21, the right to liberty cannot be taken away. The complaint, on its face, has no legs to stand on,” Dave told @Samriddhi0809 . In general, he said, “the judiciary had failed to protect Muslims and Christians from such criminal cases”.

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