Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Man in India arrested for drinking tea in "a suspicious manner"

Bewildered by the explanation that a man was arrested because he was drinking tea in a "suspicious manner" at a road side stall near Shivaji University in Kolhapur, the Bombay high court directed the police to back off and set aside the preventive detention proceedings against him.

Vijay Patil, a 49-year-old restaurant owner from Kolhapur had moved the HC to challenge his detention and sought damages.

His lawyer Satyavrat Joshi said the police had no real reason to pluck him off the street at 11am on February 22 while he was merely sipping tea. The HC said it agreed.

"Beyond saying that the petitioner had no explanation for being at the tea stall, we find nothing in the affidavit in reply, filed by police sub-inspector V T Jadhav," said a bench of Justices C Dharmadhikari and Gautam Patel last week.

 The judgment penned by Justice Patel said, "This is bewildering. We were unaware that the law required anyone to give an explanation for having tea, whether in the morning, noon or night. One might take tea in a variety of ways, not all of them always elegant or delicate, some of them perhaps even noisy. But we know of no way to drink tea 'suspiciously'." Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Christian in Pakistan murdered for drinking tea from Muslims-only cup...
  2. 'Sentenced to death for being thirsty'
  3. 11 nurses in Karachi poisoned for eating during Ramadan...

No comments:

Post a Comment