20.12.2016
PRESS RELEASE
The NIA court verdict awarding death sentence to five Muslim youth is unfair
Demand to conduct re-trial in open court and abolish the death penalty
Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee express its grave concern over the delivering of the judgement by awarding the death sentence to the five Muslim youth who were shown accused in the Dilsukhnagar blast case is based on an unfair trial. This committee slams the way trial is conducted without providing any proper legal assistance. There are many errors in conducting trial, the foremost is NIA constituted a fast track court in Cherlapally high security prison. The access to the court for the advocates, media and people was restricted. It was conducted in hasty manner by avoiding due course of law.
Conducting the trial in the four walls of a high security prison and awarding the death sentence to five Muslim youth by showing them as guilty of terror charges and responsible for Dilsukhnagar bomb blasts, this whole procedure is nothing but travesty of justice. It has now become a big question mark on justice system in India. It is a matter of fact that Dilsukhnagar bomb blast is a heinous crime committed against humanity. For this heinous crime the investigation is not done in proper manner but it was conducted with prejudiced mindset. As the practice existed among the investigative agencies from day one, they held a particular group responsible for the blasts.
Whenever there is a blast in any corner of the country, the police, media and the investigative agencies immediately blame Muslim youth without even any basic investigation. And if at all the investigation is done, it is done with prejudice manner; if the investigation is done with such prejudiced mindset, trial done within the confines of four walls and death sentence declared then how can the demand of justice prevail. It is learnt from the newspaper reports that the accused counsel was not present and even the family members were also not present; these five accused had submitted a petition stating that they have nothing to do with the blasts and they are innocent. It is largely believed that the NIA court did not think proper to wait for the accused counsel to be present at the hearing to put forth his arguments because the public prosecutor, the judge and the court was already mentally prepared that they should be given death sentence. No one in fact knows what went on in the hearings inside the high security confined walls. Media is writing their own stories and police personnel are giving their own versions.
There are number of blast cases all over the country pending for the investigation and trial and it has time and again proved that the Hindutva terrorists are behind most of the blasts in the country. One gets curious as to what made the NIA form a fast track special court in Cherlapally and run the trial and declare death sentence to these accused in hasty manner and leaving all the other blast cases in the cold storage.
Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee strongly believes that death penalty is an inhuman act, no one has right to take away the life of any individual. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all the civil and human rights organizations in the country have been opposing death sentence. They have been demanding abolition of death sentence. But it is the matter of fact that whenever there is a Muslim as accused, the judiciary is in the forefront to award death penalty be it Afzal Guru, Yakub Memon, Ajmal or now these five Muslim youth. Even the police personnel give their own judgments by killing Muslim accused in cold blooded manner in the name of encounters.
Civil Liberties demands to re-trial the case in the open court not in the confined walls and also provide all legal remedies to the accused persons so that justice can be done and the standard of justice can prevail. This committee also demands the government of India to abolish the death penalty so that the legal procedural system is not misused to take away anyone’s’ life.
Lateef Mohammed Khan
Gen. Secretary