I am from Mumbai supposedly a city that never sleeps. I was sitting outside a shop that was closed at 2:30 in the night with a friend of mine within 5 feet of his house when Police with plain clothes drove up in a non police car and stopped by the shop. We had met that late because I got home late from work and by the time I saw him and we had strolled around it was late. He wanted to show me some regular website (non p*rnographic) he had come across and to look at it peacefully before he got inside his house, we decided to sit on the steps, thinking it is a matter of 5 to 10 minutes, plus the police station is not more than 50 feet away, so we are safe. If it helps, I am 33 and he is 22. Both are well educated and definately were not dressed like people who sleep on the street.
I asked them for their ID and they refused to show me any id. They said they shall take us to the nearest police station that was in Santacruz (W). We agreed to go as we wanted to cooperate with the law. When they took us there, even though there was an official in uniform who looked like a inspector or sub inspector by rank, they still did not tell us why they had got us to the police station. Even though I repeatedly asked them to state why they had asked us to come to the station and what was our crime neither did the ones in plain clothes nor did the officer tell us why we were brought there and they said that we needed to meet a senior official who would explain things to us. Then they took me and my friend to another area where they was no senior official and forcibly took our phones away from us and locked us up in a detention room. One of them even went ahead and slapped my young friend on his face while I was trying to resist my phone being taken away from me without I being given any information as to why we were there. One has read more than enough stories of police brutality and harressement in the newspaper and their behavior appeared downright suspicious. That had prompted me to resist this treatment being meted out to us.
When the officer eventually came, they presented us in front of him. He told us that the police had sweeping rights to question anyone they found suspicious in the night and that it was unlawful for a law abiding citizen to be out on the streets or in a place of entertainment late into the night which did not have the necessary permissions or licenses to be open.
I would like to know what are these law(s) that this officer was referring to?
What sweeping powers do the police have under these law(s)? are they special to Mumbai or do they apply everywhere? Am I really expected to sit in my house at night even though no curfew has been declared?
What is the definition of "suspicious" for the police?
Under what precise circumstances do they have the right to slap a tax paying law abiding citizen?
What are my rights as a citizen for redress? With government body can I complain to against the police?
