Retired professor’s wife alleges officers barged in, turned house upside down, and didn’t provide any warrant or explanation; the retired professor, who is the only male in the house, was taken into custody around 5 pm on Tuesday and escorted to Kurla police station
The building in Mumbra where ATS picked up the retired professor. PICS/IQBAL ANSARI
The Pune Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) detained a retired professor of a reputed engineering college in Mumbai from his residence in Mumbra on Tuesday. mid-day contacted his wife, who claimed that around 15 officers entered their home and conducted a search for about three hours without any explanation, claiming it is just an enquiry process.
Following the search, the officers allegedly confiscated three mobile phones from the house — including the suspect’s, his wife’s and their children’s — two pen drives, one hard disk and a few chits of paper. The retired professor, who is the only male in the house, was taken into custody around 5 pm on Tuesday and escorted to Kurla police station. He was released around midnight and asked to come in at 10 am on Wednesday. “Due to media buzz about my husband being detained, our 8-year-old daughter is not able to go to school. We are under immense stress,” said the woman.
The retired professor’s wife shows the email she sent out to senior police officials
She asserted that her husband had no involvement in the Delhi blast or any other unlawful activity, had never visited Pune, and doesn’t have any links to any organisation, Masjid or Madarsa for teaching Urdu or Arabic. “After teaching for 35 years in a reputed engineering college in Mumbai, he retired five years ago and since then has been in the house only. Since he has two wives including me, he spends some time with the second wife and three children in Kurla,” she added.
According to the woman, who teaches the Quran at home to children and online to adults, the professor was talking on the phone with his sister when the police entered the house. So he asked her to call back saying some police officials had come. When his sister tried to call again, the family’s phones were switched off. Panicked, relatives started visiting the house and got in touch with advocates.
A local resident, Abdur-Rehman Shaikh, said the professor is a noble man and the family shifted to the area five years ago. “He is never seen in objectionable activities,” Shaikh said. As the police did not mention the reason for detaining the professor, his wife has emailed the Director General of Police (DGP) of Maharashtra and Additional DGP with a list of demand.
Allegations made in the letter
>> Police entered the house and started interrogating my husband who is a senior citizen, without providing any reason
>> Did not furnish any search warrant despite repeated requests and turned the house upside down
>> Did not take complete videography of incident but only recorded the parts they wished to
>> Did not prepare any panchnama and didn’t hand over the same despite repeated requests
>> Said they were taking suspect from Mumbra to Kurla home, but he didn’t reach there for four hours
>> After three hours of being taken away, suspects wife called ATS Control Room but didn’t get proper answer
>> Suspect, who has blood pressure and diabetes, was taken away without his medication
Demands made in letter
>> Direct ATS officers to immediately hand over physical custody of retired professor to family
>> Direct ATS to hand over alleged house search panchanama
>> Direct ATS not to harrass professor or family in the name of investigation
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