NGOs demand release of men held for `compromising in public' Express News Service Lucknow, January 12: SEVERAL state and national level NGOs have flayed the recent arrest of four men by the Lucknow Police on January 4 on the pretext of being gay and alleging sexual act in public places. The NGOs hold that they were not arrested from a park but picked from their homes. Addressing the media persons in the city on Thursday, the NGOs have demanded action against SSP Ashutosh Pandey, SHO Gudamba Anil Kumar Yadav and other police officials, and withdrawal of case against the four people arrested. They also demanded the repeal of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.
``Why does the police become so active when it comes to arresting people on the charge of being gay? Where are they when cases of rape and child sexual abuse lay pending in the police stations and courts for months and even years,'' said Tulika Srivastava of Association for Advocacy of Legal Initiative (AALI). BrideGroom 18-2526-3031-3536-4546-5099-50 Jashodhara of Sahyog too expressed similar sentiments. The representatives of NGOs like National Campaign for Sexuality Rights, AALI (Lucknow), Sahyog (Lucknow), Parma (Baroda) and lawyers Vivek Divan from Mumbai and Arvind Narain from Bangalore conducted a fact finding, where the met Principal Secretary (home) Alok Sinha, ADG (crime) R K Tiwari, SO Gudamba police station Anil Kumar Yadav, Rajesh Sharma advocate and representatives of various NGOs. Tulika and Jashodhara, alongwith Pratap of HIV and AIDS Citizens Forum shared the fact finding report with the media. ``We have found that none of the four men involved were having sex in public, leave alone being present at the spot from where they were reportedly arrested. Infact, the police had actually arrested only Nihal and mobile numbers of others were procured after torturing him. He was arrested at 11.30 pm on January 3, but others were arrested from a restaurant in Mahanagar, where the police had forced Nihal to call them,'' the activists alleged. The organisations, which also include Action Aid, Bharosa, Care India, FPAI, Gudiya, Healthwatch UP and Bihar, Humsafar, Masvaw, UPNN, Vigyan Foundation and Vananagana, have demanded the withdrawal of case against the four accused. They have also demanded strict action against the police officials involved and the repeal of Section 377 of IPC. SSP Lucknow Ashutosh Pandey has denied all the allegations made against the police department. ``Gay culture is against Indian culture and we are only doing things under the law,'' he said. About arresting the accused Nihal Naqvi from his house and the others, Pramit Bailey, Pankaj Gupta and Ashutosh Khanna after 10 hours of the first arrest, Pandey said the accused were arrested from a park when they were indulging in the `act'. Group Site: http://www.gaybombay.info ========================== This message was posted to the gay_bombay Yahoo! Group. Responses to messages (by clicking "Reply") will also be posted on the eGroup and sent to all members. If you'd like to respond privately to the author of any message then please compose and send a new email message to the author's email address. Post:- gay_bombay@yahoogroups.com Subscribe:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Digest Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] No Mail Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Individual Mail Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Contact Us:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives are at http://www.mail-archive.com/gay_bombay%40yahoogroups.com/maillist.html Classifieds for personal advertisements are back on www.gaybombay.info site. Please exercise restraint in the language of your personal advertisement. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
