Allahabad HC takes cognizance of letter seeking information on BHU student missing since February following police pickup

The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday took cognisance of a letter addressed to its Chief Justice alleging that a student of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) who was allegedly picked up by certain police personnel has been missing since February 16, 2020.

A division bench of the Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Samit Gopal treated the letter as a petition in the nature of a habeas corpus and issued notice to the District Magistrate of Varanasi, Senior Superintendent of Police, Varanasi, and Station House Officer, Police Station Lanka.

Advocate Saurabh Tiwari who is also an alumnus of BHU wrote to the Chief Justice asserting that Shiv Kumar Trivedi, a student of B.Sc. 2nd year at BHU was picked up by certain police personnel from the M.P. Theatre ground, BHU and taken to Police Station Lanka, District Varanasi.

A complaint was made by the father of the missing student through the Chief Proctor's Office of the University on February 16, 2020. However, even after more than six months, the whereabouts of the missing student is not known.

The letter stated that initially, the police denied the report that student Shiv Kumar Trivedi was in Lanka police station. But after production of the proof of dial 112 call details, the police accepted that Shiv Kumar Trivedi was in Lanka, Police Station.

The High Court fixed August 25 as the next date of hearing. It directed the Government Advocate to file a  complete statement of facts in the form of a short counter affidavit before the next date of listing.

Read Order

http://theleaflet.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/WPILA_819_2020.pdf