Wife of activist, environmentalist and innovator Sonam Wangchuk,Geetanjali Angmo on Friday raised serious concerns over the treatment of her husband in custody and the alleged harassment of their associates. Speaking to the media, Angmo said she has received “no judicial help” in trying to establish contact with Wangchuk, who is reportedly under detention.“Not at all,” Angmo replied when asked if she was getting judicial assistance. “I only got a call from a member of an apex body that he received a call from a DSP saying that some people could meet Sonam Wangchuk. I told him that I want this in writing. But I have never received anything such.”
Angmo alleged that she is under constant surveillance in Delhi. “I am being followed everywhere in Delhi. A car follows me wherever I go,” she claimed.She further stated that staff working closely with them have been detained. “They are in police custody… They are being beaten up. They are being tortured mentally and physically. On one hand, Sonam is being detained inhumanely, and on the other hand, a witch hunt against us has been intensified. This is why we had to approach the Supreme Court,” she said.
Expressing concern over her husband’s condition, Angmo said, “I am worried about how he must be getting treated in jail. This message should reach throughout India: if justice can be delayed for a celebrity, with whom the whole country is rallying, who has worked at the grassroots, then what recourse does a commoner have?”
The statement comes amid mounting questions over the circumstances of Wangchuk’s detention and the larger crackdown on protests in Ladakh demanding statehood and Sixth Schedule protections.
It is not clear when the petition filed by Gitanjali in the Supreme Court would be heard since the apex court is on vacation this week for Dussehra. Wangchuk was arrested from Ladakh on September 26 and is currently under detention in a jail in Jodhpur. The arrest was made pursuant to the protests and violence that broke out in Ladakh over demands of statehood for the Union Territory. The plea filed through advocate Sarvam Ritam Khare was filed on October 2.
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