Panaji : The Bombay high court held an urgent hearing late on Sunday evening and directed the immediate release of seven persons who were detained by police for being a part of Cockroach Janata Party ’s protest in Panaji.




“Considering that there are no prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the BNSS, we are of the opinion that the detention may not have been authorised,” the high court stated. “We are also informed that the executive magistrate . Dattaprasad Toraskar, who was present at the site, had given oral instructions to police to detain the seven persons since they had barged into Azad Maidan , Panaji,” said the division bench of justices Valmiki Menezes and Amit Jamsandekar .




The court said that for the moment, it would not enter the controversy and the correctness of the detention order, considering that senior advocate Norma Alvares gave an Undertaking on behalf of the detainees that they would not protest at Azad Maidan, Panaji, on Sunday night. It directed the Panaji PI to release them. Jack Sukhija, Afreen Shaikh, Liston Noronha, Aditya Parulekar, Milind Rane, Bhupesh Bind, and Shamino Fernandes were subsequently released.




The court directed that any of them in need of medical examination be taken to GMC, where the chief medical officer would examine them and submit a report under sealed cover to the court on Monday during the hearing.T




The high court also directed the PIs of the Panaji and Pernem police stations and the executive magistrate, Panaji, to file affidavits on Monday when the court hears the petitions in detail. The two PIs appeared before HC via videoconferencing and said they were given instructions by the executive magistrate, Panaji, to detain the protestors. The HC was also informed by both police officers that the phones of the detainees were taken away and were now been returned.




They said the protesters were taken in custody by Panaji police and kept in custody at Pernem police station because they “wanted to avoid a law and order situation in Panaji”. From Pernem, they were being brought back to Panaji to be produced before the sub-divisional magistrate, but the HC directed them to be relesaed.




Alvares, along with advocate Om D’Costa, representing the petioners Malisa Simoes and Rui Gomes Pereira, told the court that Shaikh, being a woman, could not have been detained beyond 6pm. The division bench conducted the hearing at 7.30pm after two habeas corpus petitions were filed seeking immediate production and release of the detainees from the custody of Pernem police. The HC will continue hearing this petition as well as another one filed on behalf of Shaikh on Monday.




Earlier, state authorities also prevented the protestors from assembling at Azad Maidan, forcing them to initially protest on 18th June road and then move to the municipal garden. “Under which law was permission denied? We have broken no law. In 2027, remember that this govt prevented us from entering Azad Maidan. Every govt must change after 10 years,” said retired Allahabad high court chief justice Ferdino Rebello .




Anticipating trouble, the authorities deployed a huge posse of police to control the protestors who numbered between 150 and 200. Around 11 buses were stationed at Azad Maidan to detain and ferry the protestors, if required. Riot Control trucks were also deployed at Azad Maidan.