Plea accuses CBI of shielding Heptulla from ‘morphing’ charges

Claiming that the CBI had not taken any steps to investigate the alleged “morphing” of photos used in a book released by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), despite court orders issued in 2005, the grand nephew of the country’s first education minister, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, has moved the Delhi High Court alleging […]

Claiming that the CBI had not taken any steps to investigate the alleged “morphing” of photos used in a book released by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), despite court orders issued in 2005, the grand nephew of the country’s first education minister, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, has moved the Delhi High Court alleging that the CBI and the government were “trying to shield” Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla from criminal liability.

The court of Justice Vibhu Bakhru on Tuesday issued notice to the Central government, the CBI and the ICCR on the plea, which has alleged that a “morphed” picture had been used in the book on the life of Maulana Azad, showing him standing with Najma Heptulla, who is presently the Minority Affairs Minister and was the ICCR president in 2005.

Firoz Bakht Ahmed, who is the grandson of Azad’s older brother, has also alleged that the “morphed picture” had been “used” by Heptulla “in order to claim relationship/ lineage with Maulana Azad, which has remained dubious and unsubstantiated”.

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The controversial photograph shows Azad seated with Heptulla after her graduation. It was published in an ICCR publication titled “Journey of a Legend, on the life of India’s first Education Minister”. The publication was later withdrawn by ICCR.

The petitioner has alleged that the photograph was “fabricated” as Heptulla had graduated in May 1958, whereas Azad died on February 22, 1958.

Ahmed had earlier filed a similar plea before the Delhi High Court in 2005, obtaining orders from the Court to the CBI to “bring the preliminary inquiry to its logical conclusion”. Nine years later, Ahmed has claimed that the CBI has not given out any inquiry report and has refused to give any replies to RTI queries filed by him.

During the hearing before the court of Justice Vibhu Bakhru, advocate Prashant Bhushan argued that the CBI had not given any response so far on whether the inquiry had been brought to a conclusion.

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Ahmed’s plea further stated that following the controversy in 2005, the Ministry of External Affairs, in its reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, had also stated that no official of the ICCR was involved in deciding the photograph and the text of “Journey of a Legend”.

“All the photographs and text were personally selected by the president of ICCR (Ms Heptulla) who had also approved the dummy copy before printing,”the plea alleged.

“Alleged act of photograph morphing (fabrication) at the instance of the then president of the ICCR (Heptulla) is an offence of forgery punishable under the IPC. It is apparent from the facts and circumstances of the present case that because the person accused of the offence is a high profile politician, efforts have been made by the government, ICCR and the CBI to shield her from criminal liability. Such an attempt strikes at the root of the rule of law and, therefore, warrants appropriate interference of court,” Ahmed said in his petition.

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