Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee in its press release at press conference states that keeping in view the controversy and uneasiness among the people created due to the verdict on Makkah Masjid bomb blast is one sided act of judiciary and the court of law completely ignored the principles of justice. We strongly believe that criminal justice system utterly failed in case of Makkah Masjid bomb blast in which special NIA court acquitted all five Hindutva terrorists. This acquittal is not just travesty of justice; it also reflects the collapse of judicial system in our country. This verdict also proves Institutional Bias, and the Hindutva Terror hand in glove with Investigating Agencies thereby failure of Prosecution and Courts; all these are responsible for the grave injustice done to the Makkah Masjid bomb blast victims and the society as a whole. It is a blot on Indian judicial system. In an open case of terror such as Makkah Masjid bomb blast, judiciary failed to provide justice.

 

It should be noted that on the 16th April 2018, special NIA court delivered a verdict but not justice. It is a matter of fact that on this day the whole country was in a great hope that the court will give justice to Makkah Masjid blast victims. But after delivery of verdict a wave of shock spread all over the country and everyone is asking each other as to what happened to our judiciary. Why judiciary didn’t apply its mind in such a sensitive case? Moreover, the judge himself resigned immediately after the delivery of verdict which raised a question mark on his judgment. On this very day the confidence of the society has completely shaken from the judicial system.

 

Aseemanand and his associates carried blast not only at Makkah Masjid but also at several places such as Ajmer, Samjhauta Express, and Malegaon etc. Their main aim was to target the Muslim community. All these terrorists belong to RSS and its affiliates. Aseemanand himself has said all this in the interview given to the Caravan which was published on their website, where he has named RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who instructed Aseemanand to carry out this task of carrying bomb blasts at various places in the country and terrorise the Muslim community. To quote Aseemanand, “Then they (Mohan Bhagwat and Indresh Kumar) told me, ‘Swamiji, if you do this we will be at ease with it. Nothing wrong will happen then. Criminalisation nahin hoga (It will not be criminalised). If you do it, then people won’t say that we did a crime for the sake of committing a crime. It will be connected to the ideology. This is very important for Hindus. Please do this. You have our blessings.’”

 

In fact the matter is that, in the Makkah Masjid blast case the politics and ruling class played an important role to get the verdict as per their will and wish. The details of failure of this case are below:

  1. On 18th May 2007 a powerful blast took place at Makkah Masjid during Friday prayers, where 9 people died and 50 injured. One more bomb was found which had not exploded.
  2. Immediately after the blast, police opened fire on the people who were helping the dead and injured; in this police firing 5 more people died and many got injured.
  3. Within five minutes of blast, police propagated through electronic media that Muslims are responsible for this blast.
  4. Police registered two FIRs for one incident of terror attack; one was for the exploded bomb and another for the unexploded bomb. Exploded bomb case was handed over to CBI and unexploded bomb FIR was kept with the Hyderabad police themselves.
  5. Then a Special Investigation Cell (SIC) was formed and within few days police started rounding off large number of Muslim youth including the youth injured in the blast; in the name of interrogation, SIC targeted, tortured and implicated number of Muslim youth in Makkah Masjid bomb blast case.
  6. From the day one the police tried hard to implicate Muslim youth in the terror cases and completely ruled out the Hindutva terrorists. Because of communal mindset of Hyderabad police and wasting time to divert the case towards innocents, the case is diluted and real criminals benefitted in all aspects.
  7. Aseemanand was arrested by the CBI from Haridwar in December 2010 for his alleged role in the Mecca Masjid blast.
  8. In this period of eight years, all the witnesses slowly started becoming hostile. Even the police personnel became hostile. Hindutva organizations started using their pressure tactics on investigation agencies, prosecution and courts.
  9. NIA appointed the prosecutor who has the background of RSS and the peoples’ opinion is that instead of fighting the case in the spirit of providing justice to the victims, he tried to protect the criminals.
  10. Finally, in spite of all this, the trial court did not apply its mind, did not take the confessional statement seriously, and pronounced verdict in haste and within hours of this he submitted his resignation that raised many doubts and questions on this verdict which is now suspicious.

 

In the larger interest of justice, an extensive enquiry needs to be conducted in the manner in which a botched up prosecution was conducted in the case of such a serious nature. Further the impugned judgement should be immediately suspended by the Hon’ble High Court and order for its retrial under its supervision by taking it as suo moto cognizance of the case as the matter of Makkah Masjid blast is not an isolated individual case but it concerned the entire Indian nation.

 

Demands:

  1. We demand Government of Telangana to immediately intervene and take all possible measures to provide justice for Makkah Masjid blast victims.

 

  1. We demand accountability from the prosecution for their total failure to ensure justice and demand an extensive and through inquiry in the manner in which a substandard and botched up prosecution was conducted in the sensitive blast case.

 

  1. We demand the Hon’ble High Court to take suo moto cognizance of the case and order a retrial under its supervision as expeditiously as possible to restore the confidence of the public in judicial system.

 

We appeal to the people of India to realize the increasing fold of Hindutva terror with impunity and to combat it to save the secular and democratic fabric of India.

 

 

 

Lateef Mohd Khan                                   Ashala Srinivas                       Kaneez Fathima        

Gen. Secretary                             Activist CLMC                         Joint Secretary

 

 

  Adv. M. Mandakini              Dr.Ibrahim Ali Junaid                Adv. Mohd Ismail Khan     Adv.Nikhat Fatima

Activist CLMC                   Activist CLMC                                    Activist CLMC                  Activist CLMC