Former Delhi Mayor seeks action against police officers over house search

Former Delhi Mayor Farhad Suri has approached the Supreme Court seeking the registration of an FIR against police officers who conducted an alleged midnight search at his Nizamuddin East residence in the national capital, purportedly aimed at locating Abhishek Upadhyay, an independent journalist who flagged the misappropriation of Ram Temple donations.

Mr. Suri, represented by advocate Anoop Prakash Awasthi, said in his plea that an “unusually large” contingent of Ghaziabad police rolled into his residential colony in a convoy of 15 to 16 police vehicles around 12.45 a.m.

on the intervening night of August 22-23 to search his house. Mr. Suri submitted that the whole thing was done in a “high-handed, unauthorised and intimidating manner”. He said some of the members of the posse were in plain-clothes and did not furnish a search warrant.

The police told Mr. Suri that they had information that an accused in a double-murder case at Indirapuram (in Uttar Pradesh) was hiding on his premises. “When the petitioner sought to ascertain the authority and warrant under which his residence was proposed to be searched, the police party did not furnish any such document or provide any satisfactory explanation.

Upon contacting the SHO of Police Station Hazrat Nizamuddin, the petitioner was informed that the local police had only been apprised of the visit of the U.P. Police team to Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station and had no information regarding the particular premises proposed to be searched,” the petition said.

Mr. Suri said he subsequently learnt that the U.P. Police party had purportedly come pursuant to FIR No. 678/2026, Police Station Indirapuram, allegedly concerning Abhishek Upadhyay, and not any double-murder case as stated by the officer leading the search.

Mr. Upadhyay, against whom the Ghaziabad Police had lodged a road-rage FIR, is already under the interim protection of the Supreme Court from any coercive action. “The manner and scale of the operation, coupled with the apparent disregard of the safeguards governing inter-State police action, disclose a concerted abuse of police authority calculated to overawe and coerce the petitioner, thereby directly threatening his life, personal liberty, dignity and constitutional rights,” Mr.

Suri’s petition said. Mr. Awasthi submitted that the incident raised a larger constitutional rights’ question as to whether a police force of one State could enter the territorial jurisdiction of another State and attempt a search of a citizen’s residence at midnight without adherence to the safeguards of law, without proper coordination with and authorisation of the local police, and without accountability for the conduct of the officers and unidentified persons accompanying them.

Besides the lodging of an FIR against the police officers, Mr. Suri has also sought the preservation of CCTV footage, call detail records and vehicle registration details. He urged the Supreme Court to intervene and lay down guidelines to prevent the recurrence of such arbitrary exercise of police power.