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The Delhi High Court on Tuesday (August 18) closed a habeas corpus plea alleging the illegal detention of Aam Aadmi Party MLA Kuldeep Kumar after the Delhi Police informed the Court that he had been released earlier in the day.

A division bench of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Ravinder Dudeja noted that Kumar had been released at around 3:48 PM on August 18 and held that the purpose of the present plea stood fulfilled by his release.

The matter was mentioned before the Court earlier in the day by Senior Advocate Shadan Farasat, who said that Kumar had allegedly been picked up by police men in plain clothes while he was asleep at his residence at around 4 AM. Farasat submitted that Kumar had been leading a protest since the previous day over the death of a sanitation worker in his constituency, seeking compensation for the worker's family.

"4:00 am he is picked up while he is asleep at home...20-25 police men in plain clothes picking him up dont allow him to take his phone...He is not contactable through the day until we mention before the Chief Justice...Right now they inform us that he has been released...He (Kumar) was holding a protest for getting compensation for him (sanitation worker). Can that be a reason for invoking such a draconian preventive detention arrest?" Farasat argued during the hearing.

Counsel appearing for the respondents placed before the Court copies of the General Diary of Madhu Vihar police station and informed that Kumar had been released at 3:48 PM today. 

While closing the habeas corpus plea, the Court clarified that Kumar would be entitled to avail appropriate legal remedies for other reliefs.

Farasat thereafter submitted that Kumar would take appropriate steps to seek compensation over the alleged illegal detention and damage caused to his property.

The plea filed by Advocate Rishikesh Kumar claimed that early on Tuesday at about 4:00 A.M., 20-25 persons in plain clothes, claiming to be officials of Delhi Police, raided the residence of corpus–Kuldeep Kumar, the sitting Member of Legislative Assembly from East Delhi.

It alleged that none of these persons were in uniform and none of them had any name plate or badge, and no warrant, order or recordwas shown to the Petitioner or her family members which could provetheir identity or the authority under which they were acting. It alleges that these persons forcibly took Kuldeep Kumar with them to an undisclosed location.

And before leaving these persons allegedly destroyed the CCTV cameras installed at the residence and took away the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) of the CCTV system with them.

The plea claims that the only reason attributable to the illegal detention of Kuldeep Kumar is that he had been actively supporting the sanitation workers who were demanding compensation for the family of a deceased worker, and had been urging the Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, to meet the protesters.

Since morning, the whereabouts of Kumar are unknown and while the family members made enquiries from the Delhi Police however, no information whatsoever regarding his detention, the grounds there of or his where abouts have been provided. 

Case title: Deepa wife of Kuldeep Kumar v/s State of NCT of Delhi

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