The Additional District and Session court in Agartala on Tuesday remanded Delhi-based content creator Amir Shokeen to police custody till November 12 after he was brought to the state on transit remand in connection with racial slur and harassment case involving a tribal youth from Tripura.
Shokeen was produced before the Additional District and Session Judge of West Tripura in Agartala after a Tripura Police team brought him from Delhi on Tuesday morning. Police investigation team had sought seven days of police custody to question him in connection with the case. The court, however, granted police custody until November 12 and directed that he be produced again on November 13.
Giving details Additional SP(West Tripura) Dhruba Nath said Shokeen will be interrogated in connection with an FIR registered at the New Capital Complex (NCC) police station in Agartala.
The case was registered on October 22 under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Before being brought to Tripura, Shokeen was arrested by Delhi Police from the Karol Bagh area on October 22. He was later produced before the Tis Hazari Court on October 24, which remanded him to five days of police custody. A Tripura Police team led by a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) subsequently travelled to Delhi to secure his transit remand and bring him to Agartala.
Director General of Police (DGP) G S Rao had earlier stated that the FIR was registered after a video allegedly showing a tribal youth from Tripura being subjected to racial slurs and harassment surfaced on social media.
According to the DGP, the video came to his notice on October 21, following which he contacted the Special Commissioner of Police of the Special Police Unit for the North Eastern Region (SPUNER) under the Delhi Police, along with the concerned Deputy Commissioner of Police, seeking prompt action.
Preliminary investigations indicated that the video had been recorded in Ahmedabad around one-and-a-half months earlier. Police have also identified the individual who allegedly uploaded the video on social media.
The video, which allegedly contains racially derogatory remarks targeting a young man from Tripura, sparked widespread outrage across the state and drew demands for strict legal action. Investigators are expected to examine the circumstances under which the video was recorded, circulated and shared, while also determining the role of each person involved.
Earlier, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha had directed DGP Rao to coordinate with the Delhi Police to ensure swift legal action against those responsible for the alleged racist remarks.
The incident also drew condemnation from Union Parliamentary Affairs and Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, as well as major political parties in Tripura, including the CPI(M), Congress and Tipra Motha Party (TMP), all of whom demanded stringent action against the accused.
In addition, two CPI(M)-affiliated organizations—the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and the Tribal Youth Federation (TYF)—along with the Tipra Motha Party's Youth Tipra Federation (YTF) and TIPRA Indigenous Students' Federation (TISF), separately lodged complaints with the Agartala police against Shokeen over the allegedly racist video.