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UK gays angry with UP Police
A gay group reacted sharply against the arrests of four men on charges of homosexuality in Lucknow.
A gay human rights group in the UK has reacted strongly against the recent arrests of four men on charges of homosexuality in Uttar Pradesh.
The arrests were made after police raided premises in Lucknow, seizing more than a thousand telephone numbers of people connected to the gay club housed there. Police sources claim that the group, 'Talaash', was the Internet-based creation of Nihal Ahmed, a married civil servant. They claim that Ahmed admitted that the group has over 1,00,000 members from across India.
David Allison of OutRage said, "These people haven't been accused of having sex, just of running an organisation that puts other gay people in touch with one another. This isn't even illegal in India, the law criminalises the act of gay sex, not being gay itself.
"It is worrying if Indian police start doing what the London Metropolitan Police did in the 1950s and start building up a database of people suspected of being gay." Allison added.
Homosexual sex was criminalised during British colonial rule in 1861. However under 50 people are believed to have been convicted, mainly because judges tend to be lenient.
