Key points:-
• Shah said raising questions against the arrest was easy but who would accept responsibility in case something untoward happened.
• “Do you ask the age of someone who commits a crime?” he added, apparently responding to the focus on the activist’s age and environmental activism.
The minister said the nature of a crime case should not be judged on extraneous factors, even as he refused to elaborate on the “merits” of the investigation, which he said was being handled “meticulously” by Delhi Police. “Kya gender, age, profession pooch kar gunah tay hoga? (Will a crimeulpability be decided on the basis of gender, age and profession),” Shah asked in response to questions being raised on Ravi’s arrest.
Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday strongly defended Delhi Police’s action in the Disha Ravi case, saying the arrest of the climate activist in the “toolkit” investigation had been explained by police and factors such as age, gender and profession could not be relevant in assessing culpability in a crime.
“Delhi Police have been given a free hand to deal with the case… there is no political pressure on them and they have the freedom to act as per the law, therefore, I will not speak about the merits of the case,” Shah said
Shah said raising questions against the arrest was easy but who would accept responsibility in case something untoward happened. “What kind of trend is this that people start talking about profession, association and age in terms of a case?” he asked and also criticised media reports questioning why just one 22-year-old was singled out.
“There might be many other 22- year-olds who would have been arrested,” he said. He added, “There must be some evidence on which Delhi Police has taken action.” “Delhi Police is acting as per the law. It has already given details of the IPC Sections which have been used in the case.
It has explained the case and the sections in detail for the people,” he said, adding that he was not in a position to prevent people from speaking on the issue with a political motive. Delhi Police commissioner S N Shrivastava had said that Disha Ravi’s arrest was made in accordance with the law.
