Image Courtesy: newslaundry.com
“Every time I visit her in jail, she asks if I have arranged a lawyer for her bail… She keeps crying and wonders if she will be able to take her upcoming exams… Even murderers have lawyers to fight their cases, but my little sister is languishing in jail because no lawyer is willing to take her case,” said Sahira, Sonu Mansuri’s elder sister, who was arrested last month on the basis of a complaint filed by lawyers affiliated with Hindutva outfits.
Sonu Mansuri is a 21-year-old law intern, who had been attending and observing court proceedings in the Indore district court and assisting her seniors on a regular basis for the last five months. However, on January 28, she was the subject of a viral video in which she was surrounded by a group of lawyers who grabbed her collar, grilled her, searched her, and labeled her a PFI agent.
The lawyers had alleged that they discovered over Rs 1 lakh in cash in her pockets. The said lawyers then filed a police report accusing her of impersonating a lawyer while using funds from the banned Popular Front of India (PFI). Mansuri was arrested on the same day, and the media ran stories highlighting the accusations put on Mansuri, sans her perspective. While branding Mansuri a PFI agent, a section of the media did not even bother to seek her or her family’s response.
At the MG Road police station, an FIR was filed under IPC sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy). Mansuri is being held in the Indore Central Jail under judicial custody.
One month later, the same group of lawyers is allegedly preventing others from arguing for Mansuri’s bail, according to the report published by the Newslaundry report. The initial counsel, who filed her bail petition, has not appeared at the four hearings this month, and the court had eventually dismissed her bail plea on February 27.
1.How true are the allegations levied against her?
The alleged wad of cash found on her:
A student at the Dewas government law college, Sonu was interning under senior lawyer Noor Jahan Khan. While talking to Newslaudary, it was revealed that the cash was found on Mansuri was given to her by one of Khan’s clients, Asif Ansari. He had also provided a statement to the MG Road police station confirming this.
“I am a client of Noor Jahan. She was handling my check bounce case. She had instructed me to submit Rs 1,26,000 for stamp duty and other legal requirements. “I went to court on January 28 to give her the money, but she was not there and asked me to give it to her intern Sonu Mansuri,” Asif Ansari had said, as reported by the Newslaundry.
Mansuri’s elder brother, Iqbal Mansuri, had also said that she is “the only one in our family who has been this educated and is pursuing a good career. We only met her once after she was arrested. She said she went to court on the orders of her superior and collected the money from the client. We don’t understand the allegations… The cops also failed to show us anything. She is being trapped.”
2.Allegations of Impersonation and video recordings
Reporters from Newslaundary had spoken to the lawyers from the Indore court and were privy to the matter. One of the lawyers familiar with the situation had said, “The main charge against her is that she was pretending to be a lawyer. She has never claimed to be a lawyer. Anyone with a passing knowledge of the law understands that only lawyers wear neck bands. If she had pretended to be a lawyer, she would have worn the band to court, but she didn’t. No one in the Indore district court is willing to hear her case as lawyers are under pressure.”
According to another senior lawyer familiar with the activities of the bar association, no such video of the court proceedings was found in Sonu’s phone.
“Even if we consider that she recorded the proceedings, the judge was the only authority with the authority to take action against her. Those lawyers had no right or authority to harass her and have her arrested… “She would have definitely been noticed by the judges if she had been recording the court proceedings over the last five months,” said a lawyer who was in the Indore court on January 28, as was reported by the Newslaundary.
No representation for Mansuri in Bail case
According to Newslaundry, the case against Mansuri was only ostensibly linked to a section of the lawyers’ anger toward a Supreme Court advocate whom they assumed was linked to Mansuri. Over the last five months that Mansuri had been visiting the Indore district court to observe court proceedings, she was linked to Supreme Court lawyer Ehtesham Hashmi – an eyesore for Hindutva activists for his legal support in several sensitive cases. Last year, Hashmi obtained bail for a bangle seller who had been thrashed by Hindutva activists for allegedly concealing his Muslim identity. That case sparked outrage, with Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Mishra alleging that the man had Pakistani connections on social media.
And, on the day Mansuri was arrested on suspicion of spying for PFI, she had followed the Supreme Court lawyer outside the court after a hearing in a case involving a Bajrang Dal leader. During the trial, Hashmi was threatened on the court grounds by these lawyers.
It is being reported that Mansuri’s family has approached several lawyers since her arrest, including two from Indore, two from Khargone, and a team of four from Delhi, but none of them have been able to contest her bail petition.
“It’s not safe to appear for her openly,” a lawyer had told Newslaundry under the condition of anonymity. “They are extremely vengeful and may target anyone appearing in court on her behalf. Nobody wants to put their lives in danger,” as was reported by the Newslaundry.
“It’s unfortunate, but we’re powerless,” another lawyer said, as reported by Newslaundry. “We must work here; we cannot oppose them. No one wants to take a chance because they are afraid of being physically attacked.”
Amit Shrivastav, a Supreme Court lawyer, was among a group of lawyers who traveled to Indore to argue for Mansuri’s bail, but they were forced to return due to fears of an attack by local lawyers. He has petitioned the Supreme Court for the dismissal of the FIR against Mansuri and an investigation into her arrest by a sitting or retired high court judge. The petition also requests bail for Mansuri and security at the court compound and in Indore for the petitioners.
Advocate Shrivastav had also asserted that her Muslim identity is a major factor is this case. “Everyone knew Sonu was a Muslim who worked for Noor Jahan. She was singled out solely because of her identity. News organisations reported her as a PFI agent without verifying her identity. We want the police to look into the matter thoroughly because everything has happened with biases so far,” he previously told Newslaundry.
Conclusion
On February 19, Mansuri had missed the first paper of her second year final exams. Her sister, Sahira, had provided, “She is concerned about her career and her law exams. She requested books for study, but authorities refused unless we obtained permission from the court. My brother went to her college to ask if she could sit for exams, but the college officials told us that we needed permission from the court.”
Every Muslim person who deems to stand against the communally divisive agenda of the Hindutva outfits are facing consequences. From the information provided above, it can be easily deduced that there is no substantial case against Mansuri. She is just another target of the Hindutva group politics. From the police siding with the Hindutva goons and detaining the 21 year old on the same day that the FIR was filed, to the media portraying only a one-sided narrative, it is clear that Mansuri is a victim of communal oppression that has been increasing in the current times.
It is worrisome to note that advocates, even after being aware of the reality behind the false charges filed against Mansuri, are either not willing or not able to fight for her right to get bail. Today, a young woman, a budding lawyer, has been illegally detained under false charges owing to her Muslim identity. The truth behind these false revengeful tactics cannot be clearer. The power of the Hindutva goons are such that even the ones who are fighting to protect the innocents are themselves being scared into silence.
Many human rights defenders, activists and lawyers are languishing in jail for fighting against this state-sanctioned attack on individuals belonging to the Muslim community. From Umar Khalid, Sarfoora Zargar, Sharjeel Imam, Asif Tanha, Gulfisha Fatima, Kahlid Saifi, Muslim young activists have been targeted again and again. Hopefully, Sonu Mansuri does not remain another casualty of this oppressive and fascist regime.
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