The Bombay High Court directedthe Mumbai police on Thursday to file an affidavit in response to a habeas corpus petition seeking that a trade unionist illegally quarantined by the police last week be produced in court and released thereafter.Justice CV Bhadang directed the police to submit the affidavit by May 5 following a petition filed by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), seeking the release of activist trade unionist K Narayanan.Habeas corpus is a writ seeking production of a person supposed to be in illegal detention before a court.As per the petitioners lawyer Gayatri Singh, Narayanan was picked up by the police on April 21 while he was distributing food and essential supplies to migrant workers in suburban Andheri (West).He and his colleagues were carrying some placards and flags as part of CITUs national protest to highlight the plight of migrant workers affected by the COVID-19 lockdown, the petition said.As per advocate Singh, while two of Narayanas colleagues were let go, Narayanan was taken to a private lab in the Jogeshwari area and tested for COVID-19.He was told that as per procedure, the result of his test would be sent to him on his phone within the next 48 hours.However, instead of being allowed to go home, the police took away his phone and took him to a quarantine facility, Singh said.He has no history of primary contact with any (coronavirus) affected person and has not stepped into any containment zone."On the one hand there is a shortage of quarantine facilities for affected persons, so why put an additional burden on the infrastructure by forcing non-affected persons into quarantine? Singh asked.This is the same as a wrongful custodial detention, she said.The court directed the police to return Narayanans phone to him and provide him with fresh clothes.The police said it would do so but denied that it had detained Narayanan.Instead, the police said the BMC might have picked him up and interned him at a quarantine facility, advocate Singh said.Therefore, the court directed the police to file an affidavit by May 5 detailing were Narayanan was interned, when and why was he detained, among other details, she said.
