New Delhi: A local court in Delhi on Saturday issued a transit remand to a team of Manipur police to present student leader Thokchom Veewon before the court of the Imphal East District chief judicial magistrate (CJM) by February 19.Veewon, an advisor to the Manipur Students’ Union of Delhi (MSAD), was picked up from his rented accommodation in Saket by a joint team of Delhi Police and Manipur Police on the evening of February 15.Though the application – filed by the Manipur Police at the district court, Saket – sought transit remand for five days citing time required to “seek permission from the Aviation Department to take the accused person by air”, the court granted three, directing the team to produce him “on or before February 19”. The remand order said, “The accused is directed to be medically examined immediately after arrival at Lamlai, Imphal East District, Manipur”.The remand order was sought on the basis of an FIR filed at the Lamlai police station of Manipur on February 12 against Veewon under Section 124A (sedition) of the IPC, added with section 153A/353 (promotion of enmity; assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty).According to reports from Imphal, the FIR was filed against Veewon for a post he uploaded on his Facebook page. Though a police team arrived at his house in Imphal and “threatened” his parents, “searched” his room and the house, they did not disclose information about the FIR.Hours after he was taken into custody in Delhi, his Facebook page was deactivated. According to Veewon’s family and friends, his laptop and phone were also seized by the police.With no information given to his family or his lawyer about Veewon’s whereabouts, a habeas corpus petition was filed in the Delhi high court on February 16 to ascertain his location and to find out who really picked him up since the police team was dressed in plain clothes, did not identify themselves or have a warrant.“Since they didn’t identify themselves and took him away, he could well have been kidnapped. So we filed a habeas corpus seeking the intervention of the high court. But as we were being heard, the government advocate WhatsApped us the remand order about which we had no clue till then. The court thereafter dismissed the plea on technical grounds. A habeas corpus isn’t valid if the person is picked up by the state authorities. But the court didn’t give us any time to respond to it,” Veewon’s lawyer Ali Zia Kabir Choudhary told The Wire.Choudhary said, “What is strange about the remand order is that it doesn’t mention any ground as to why the court was satisfied about granting it. The accused was not given a chance to choose his advocate and the police organised one advocate supposedly to represent him without his will and the remand order said the advocate didn’t oppose the transit order.”Late Friday evening, Veewon’s brother Victor Thokchom said, “My sister was in the house when he was taken away. They had beaten him up, dragged him out of the house, didn’t give him even the chance to wear his slippers, didn’t inform her why they were taking him away.” She was just given a telephone number which turned out to be that of the special branch office of Delhi Police at Janakpuri, leading his family and friends to arrive there. However, the police did not allow them to enter the office or confirm Veewon’s whereabouts.His lawyer said, “Now it looks like he will be taken to Imphal by Monday afternoon.”Veewon, a former president of MSAD, has been at the forefront of protests organised in Delhi against the Manipur government’s decision to arrest local journalist Kishorechandra Wangkhem under the National Security Act in November and against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.