Activist Sonam Wangchuk’s detention under the National Security Act is “illegal” and has “no merit”, which is why the Union government was repeatedly seeking fresh court dates in the appeal against it, his wife Gitanjali Angmo was quoted as alleging by PTI on Sunday.
“The solicitor general of India, who represents the Union [government], always keeps taking dates after dates, employing delay tactics, because I think they have realised that there is no merit in the case,” she said in an interview to the news agency.
Angmo added that Wangchuk should already be out of prison due to what she described as serious “procedural lapses” by the authorities.
Police firing and violence had broken out in Leh on September 24 during protests seeking statehood for Ladakh and its inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Demonstrators clashed with and threw stones at the police, and set fire to the Bharatiya Janata Party office and a police vehicle.
Wangchuk was arrested in Leh on September 26, two days after four persons were killed in the police firing. He was later taken to a jail in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur.
The Union government has claimed that the violence was incited by Wangchuk’s “provocative statements”.
In October, Angmo filed a petition before the Supreme Court challenging his detention and seeking his immediate release. She has contended that the...
