Issue of picking up and torturing Muslims in Terror cases

Anil Narendra

A number of political parties met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and presented him a representation, which said that a few innocent victims could secure freedom only after they were made to undergo physical and mental torture for years. How will these innocent persons as well as their family members be compensated for the disgrace that they had to endure for years? The Prime Minister assured the delegation of solving the issue of innocent Muslims who are behind the bars even after they could not be proved guilty. Akhilesh Yadav Government in Uttar Pradesh, recently also launched a drive to drop cases against terror accused. But the Government had to think again after the Court reprimanded it. The delegation said that whenever a bomb blast occurs anywhere in the country, the Police implicate innocent Muslims to settle such cases. There is some truth in these allegations. Police do not investigate the matter properly, but also show the arrests to avoid being made laughing stock. But, that is not the case in Courts. If anybody is innocent, the Court releases him or her honourably also. We have a recent decision of Delhi High Court. A Bench of Justice S Ravindran and Justice GP Mittal of Delhi High Court acquitted two accused in the Lajpat Nagar blast case for want of evidence. Not only this, the Bench converted death sentence of one of the convicts into life imprisonment. The High Court was so much angry with the absence of alertness on the part of the Police that it listed flaws in the investigation. It also reprimanded the Police for failing in its duties. Thirteen persons were killed in a powerful bomb blast on 21^st May, 1996 in the Central Market, Lajpat Nagar. The Lower Court had pronounced death sentence to three convicts, namely Mirza Nisar Hussain, Mohammad Ali and Nishat and life imprisonment to Javed. Pointing out flaws in the investigation, the High Court judges said that Delhi Police did not comply with the minimum norms. Unfortunately, the investigation in a case like bomb blast was taken very lightly. This verdict of the High Court has also raised another question. If there had been shortcomings in Police investigation, then the Court, too failed to investigate the matter thoroughly before giving its verdict. We agree that nobody can compensate for the lost time of an accused if he is not proved guilty even after remaining in jail for years? In such cases, compensation could be given on the basis of the years that the person was made to spend in the jail. But, in my opinion, the best solution should be to settle the terror cases within a year as is being done in other countries. When this is possible in a country like Pakistan, then why not possible in India? If such cases are settled in a pre-set time-frame, then many associated problems could be solved. Whether a person is guilty or not, this could be decided only by the Court and not by Police or the Government.