ANINA Vs. DISTRICT MAGISTRATE ALIGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) M. C. Jain, J. Detention orders under Section 3 (2) of National Security Act in these three writ petitions were passed by District Magistrate, Aligarh (respondent No. 1) on the basis of one and the same incident. Therefore, we propose to decide them together by this composite order.

(2.) THE petitioner in Habeas Corpus Writ Petition No. 39594 of 2005 is Anina. Amit is the petitioner in Writ Petition No. 39598 of 2005 and one Pappan is the petitioner in the third Writ Petition No. 42347 of 2005. THE detention order is dated 24-2-2005 in Writ Petition No. 39594 of 2005. It is dated 14-3-2005 in Writ Petition No. 39598 of 2005 and the date of detention order is 24-2-2005 in Writ Petition No. 42347 of 2005. THE grounds of detention are common being based on an incident dated 26-10-2004 of about 3. 30 p. m. which took place in the market of Bara Gaon, P. S. Lodha, District Aligarh, registered at Crime No. 127 of 2004 under Sections 147/148/149/302 I. P. C. All the three petitioners are named accused along with some others in the F. I. R. that was lodged by Sarnam Singh the same day at 4. 40 p. m. THE background was of some election rivalry. One Jagmohan alias Lala was murdered in the said incident in execution of a criminal conspiracy which was allegedly hatched on 21-10-2004. On the eventful day and time, Jagmohan alias Lala with his father was going on Hero Honda Motorcycle No. U. P. 81-M/0168 from Aligarh to his village Dhoda being followed by two other motorcycles driven by Radha Raman (brother of deceased Jagmohan) and Prakash Chandra. When they reached in the market of Bara Gaon near the diesel shop of Chhedalal, a Maruti car No. UP 85l/2325 came from the side of Gonda and hit the motorcycle of Jagmohan alias Lala with the result that he and his father Sarnam Singh fell down. From the Maruti car, the present three petitioners as also Pradeep, Jitendra alias Jeetu and Sudhir (non- petitioners) alighted with fire-arms and started indiscriminate firing on Jagmohan alias Lala. As a result, he died at the spot. To create terror and to scare away the witnesses, further shots were opened and then the petitioners along with their companions made their escape good by the same Maruti car towards Gonda. THE grounds of detention further state that the incident created an atmosphere of terror and panic in the market. THE shopkeepers downed their shutters. People started running helter- skelter. Even tempo of public life was badly disturbed and public order was adversely affected in extremity. It is also there in the ground of detention that shopkeepers owing to fear did not open their shops for days together. S. P. Rural, Circle Officers of different Circles including sufficient police force had to rush the spot immediately and additional force also had to be deployed at the spot to control the situation to restore normalcy, for maintenance of public order and also to infuse confidence in people all around.

(3.) WE have heard Sri Amit Misra, learned Counsel for the petitioners in all these petitions, Sri Arvind Tripathi, learned A. G. A. on behalf of respondents No. 1, 2 and 3 and learned Counsel for the respondents No. 4 Union of India. It has been argued by the learned Counsel for the petitioners that the alleged incident took place on account of personal enmity and it was simply a matter of law and order with no overtone of public order. According to him, none else excepting the deceased was allegedly targeted or hurt and the matter could not at all be deemed to be related to public order. It has also been urged that for an incident of 26-10-2004, the detention orders in question were passed belatedly on 24- 2-2005 in the matter of Anina (Ref : Writ Petition No. 39598 of 2005), on 14-3-2005 in the case of petitioner Amit (Ref : Writ Petition No. 39598 of 2005) and on 24-2-2005 in respect of Pappan (Ref : Writ Petition No. 42347 of 2005 ).