Committees formed to help Delhi blasts suspects legally untenable; money collected donated to families Jamia Millia Islamia has wound up two committees that were formed to provide legal support its two students arrested in the September 13,2008 Delhi blasts case. The decision was taken by the universitys Academic Council in its December 11 meeting last year. The Legal Aid and the Students Relief Committees have been wound up accordingly,and remaining funds of the bodies have been distributed between the families of arrested students Zia Ur Rehman and Mohammad Shakeel. The decision was taken after the committees were found to be legally untenable by the university, Jamias media coordinator Simi Malhotra said. The committees were formed by the Academic Council,which took the decision on September 25,2008. Students and faculty still recall the emotionally charged spontaneous speech delivered by the then-Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan at a peace rally held in the evening the same day. Documents with Newsline suggest little was done by the Students Relief Committee after the first few days of its formation. The students had collected Rs 91,146 as donation from residents of the area on October 2,2008. Most of the money was spent paying the first few installments of the lawyers fees. To the remaining Rs 13,396 was added Rs 25,000 donated by the Jamia Old Boys Association. The total of Rs 38,396 was divided equally and handed over to the families of the arrested students in March this year. All this even before the trial has started. The two boys are taking their university exams after they obtained special permission from the Supreme Court. The bill of each of their trips from Tihar Jail to Jamia comes to around Rs 7,000. Their families had to deposit a total of around Rs 80,000 beforehand for this purpose, said a human rights activist who is in touch with the family of the two. A member of the faculty who was closely associated with the effort admitted that the committees fizzled out soon after their formation. The families had already identified their lawyers; the committee merely footed the bill. The committee were not successful in making the process of meeting the arrested students easier for the parents. An NGO,in fact,has been more successful in this effort, the faculty member said. The faculty association too,had not supported the committees. The chairperson of the Legal Aid Committee had written to us requesting the facultys contribution in the effort. I had written back asking for more clarity on the proposed expenditure and requesting that a member of the faculty association be made a member to ensure transparency, Secretary of the Jamia Teachers Association Tabrez Alam said. It had also recently come to light that the Jamia Old Boys Association had failed to distribute to the students families the sum of Rs 10 lakh it had received from Samajwadi Party in October 2008.
