False terror charges slapped on innocent Muslims, admits Sadananda Gowda

Aligarh, Jun 1: For the first time a prominent BJP leader and a senior minister in Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the centre has admitted the fact that innocent Muslims were being framed in terror cases in India.

“Cases of arrest of Muslim youths on false terror charges are a matter of concern,” said DV Sadananda Gowda, the Union Minister for Law and Justice during his Aligarh visit for the 'Vikas Parv' celebrations to mark two years of Modi government.

The law minister said this when he was asked about rising instances of false terror charges against Muslim youths and the problems of rehabilitation they face after their acquittal.

Mr Gowda, who was once known for his provocative speeches against Muslims, especially in coastal Karnataka, said that legal reforms were in the pipeline to address such cases.

“The law commission is working on a report in this matter to bring about reforms in criminal procedure, bail, prosecution lapses, etc. A Supreme Court judge is the chairperson of a panel preparing the report, and there are other legal experts who are helping in preparing this report, and it is being worked upon," he said.

Mr Gowda's remarks on the thorny subject have come barely a week after home minister Rajnath Singh said that "the government has settled for a calibrated approach to terror investigations, advising police to adopt a more sophisticated approach, including de-radicalisation strategies, rather than necessarily prosecuting all suspects".

Singh had then gone on to point out how the Delhi Police had recently released seven of the 10 suspects held for their alleged involvement in a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror plot. "You would have seen only three of the lot were arrested. We are working in a balanced manner. Earlier, all would be sent (to jail)," he had then said.

Slapped with untenable terror charges, many Muslim men have lost the prime years of their lives as they languished in jail. After their release they have found it difficult to adjust to a world that has changed in the interim, graduating from buses to metros, banks to ATMs, landlines to smartphones.

Recently, Nisaruddin Ahmad was acquitted in the Babri anniversary blast case after he spent 23 years in a Jaipur jail. There have been others too. Mohd Amir Khan was acquitted in 17 out of the 19 terrors charges he was fending off, but only after being incarcerated for 14 years. He had been charged with setting off 20 low-intensity bombs over 10 months during 1996-1997 in Delhi, Rohtak, Panipat and Ghaziabad. He told reporters on Tuesday: "The government has policies to rehabilitate surrendered terrorists, but nothing for those who are falsely charged."

In the past, six Muslim men accused of being trained operatives of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islam (HUJI) were acquitted of the terror charges for lack of evidence by a special court in Lucknow. Five Muslim youths who were arrested in 2006 by the Mumbai police from different parts of the city on charges of terrorism were also acquitted this year. Gulzar Ahmad Bani, an alleged Hizbul Mujahideen operative who had been in jail from 2001 in a blast case in Agra, was set free for want of evidence by a local court.

The problem runs deep. A film based on legal activist Shahid Azmi, who himself faced false charges and after his release fought to defend those accused wrongly in cases of terrorism, poignantly points that out. Mufti Abdul Qayyum, who had spent 11 years in jail and was later acquitted by the Supreme Court in the Akshardham attack case, wrote a book, 'Gyarah Saal Salakhon Ke Peeche', narrating the stories of trumped up terror charges.