E/CN.4/2001/66 page 110 554. By the same letter, the Special Rapporteur reminded the Government of a number of cases transmitted in 1997, 1998 and 1999 regarding which no reply had been received. Urgent appeals and replies received 555. On 13 January 2000 the Special Rapporteur sent an urgent appeal on behalf of Manoj Kumar Tak. In May 1998, he is said to have married Anuradha Sharma. Her father, a former public prosecutor from the Gwalior district of Madhya Pradesh, who opposed the marriage, reportedly put pressure on the Madhya Pradesh police to arrest him and his brother, Narendra Kumar Tak. In June 1998, Narendra Kumar Tak was reportedly picked up in Rajasthan by the Madhya Pradesh police and taken to Gwalior Central Jail, after having been beaten and interrogated about the whereabouts of Manoj Kumar Tak and Anuradha Sharma. He was then reportedly severely tortured by other inmates in the jail, allegedly at the instigation of Anuradha Sharma’s father. He was eventually released on 23 July 1998 after his family had filed a habeas corpus petition. In January 1999, the National Human Rights Commission asked the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan police to provide reports. The Rajasthan police reportedly responded that they had found that the case against the brothers was false. In the meantime the two brothers went into hiding in mid-1999 in Rajasthan, fearing further abuse at the hands of the Madhya Pradesh police. Manoj Kumar Tak was reportedly picked up in Jaipur, in Rajasthan, on 4 January 2000, by armed plainclothes Madhya Pradesh police officers, who allegedly beat him on the back of the head as they dragged him out of his office. He was reportedly driven to Bilowa in Gwalior. 556. On 6 June 2000, the Special Rapporteur sent a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on behalf of Mohammad Salim Bhat. Mohammad Salim Bhat was reportedly arrested by Special Operations Group (SOG) police on 23 May 2000 at his shop in Batmaloo and taken to the SOG post at the Cargo Complex, Srinagar. His family attempted to file a First Information Report (FIR) questioning the legality of his arrest, the police at Batmaloo substation reportedly refused to accept it. Shabir Ahmed Khan, a worker for the opposition political party the Muslim League was reportedly arrested on 30 May 2000 by soldiers and possibly SOG officers, at his residence at Shaheed Gunj, Srinagar, and taken to Badami Bagh Cantonment in Srinagar. Mohammad Salim Bhat’s younger brother Irshad Ahmad reportedly died in SOG custody on 5 May 2000. 557. By letter dated 10 November 2000, the Government responded that Shabir Ahmed Khan had been apprehended by the Army at his home, where a Chinese pistol and bullets were found. A case under section 7/27 of the Indian Arms Act was registered and he was arrested. The case was taken to the Court of First Magistrate, Srinagar, on 14 July 2000, where it was sub-judice. 558. On 15 June 2000, the Special Rapporteur sent an urgent appeal on behalf of Shabir Ahmad Beigh, who had reportedly been arrested on 11 June 2000 by officers of the Special Task Force and the Special Operations Group of the Indian police and the Central Reserve Police Force. His parents have been refused access to him and have not been informed of his place of detention.