New Delhi, November 23: An Iranian research scholar, in the capital for a seminar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, was detained twice by the police and subjected to questioning after Israeli embassy officials found him taking pictures near the embassy on Wednesday and handed him over to the cops.
Milad Kharid Shahidi, 25, an Iranian national who is doing a PhD from London School of Economics, was detained for several hours and questioned by special branch and IB officials before being released at night. Cops then landed up at JNU's Aravalli guesthouse after midnight and again took him to the Vasant Kunj police station for questioning. He was released around 1.30am after the intervention of JNU professors and students.
Police described the detention as routine and said Shahidi was later allowed to leave the country. JNU sources said the research scholar did not know he was near the Israel embassy. They said he was taking pictures of the road, which he found to be beautiful, when he was accosted by Israeli security staff.
Shahidi was in Delhi to attend a seminar organized by the Centre for the Study of Regional Development. According to JNU sources, he was an official guest of the varsity.
"On November 21, Shahidi went to visit the office of CSH (Centre de Sciences Humanaines), located opposite the Israel embassy in Delhi for some academic discussions. After the meeting, just like any other tourist, he clicked a photograph of the road which appeared to him to be 'very beautiful because of the greenery around it' without knowing that the Israeli Embassy was just across the road," a JNUSU statement on Thursday said.
"Immediately officials from the Israeli embassy started interrogating him and after seeing his passport, they called the police," the statement added.
Milad was taken to the Tughlak Road police station and interrogated for hours. "We were merely doing our duty. It was a coincidence that he was clicking pictures of the Israeli embassy. If he was found clicking photos of some other embassy, we would have still detained him. That we let him leave the country shows we did not find anything incriminating," said an officer.
JNUSU general secretary Shakeel Anjum said the cops not let Shahidi call up anyone for about three hours. "After getting a help call, some scholars at CSH, one of them a JNU student, reached the police station and told the police that he had come for a seminar at JNU. Later, a JNU faculty member also reached the police station. In spite of this, the cops interrogated him for several more hours before letting him go around 9pm," Anjum said.
Students claim what followed next was even more shocking. Police and IB officials again picked him up from Aravalli guesthouse in JNU around midnight. "This time, before the interrogation started, he managed to alert other guests who had come for the seminar. A JNU teacher and students went to the Vasant Kunj police station where they were told that the cops had taken permission from JNU's chief security officer before detaining Shahidi. But neither was the CSO present at the police station nor was it possible to contact him," Anjum said.
Shahidi allowed to leave around 1.30am. "The police refused to give details about the questioning," Anjum added.
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