MHA agrees to special courts for Muslims ‘falsely held’ in terror cases

“The ministry of home affairs strongly supports the proposal for special courts so that expeditious trials are possible,” home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said in a letter to minority affairs minister K Rahman Khan,who had taken up the issue with him last month.

But Shinde’s letter did not mention a time-frame for setting up such courts.

In his letter to Shinde,Khan had pointed out that in some cases,“young men have been incarcerated for 10 to 14 years as under-trials and then finally acquitted by the courts as being innocent”.

Many Muslim organisations,including the All India Muslim Personal Law Board,have been demanding setting up of special courts to ensure speedy disposal of such cases,compensation for victims and lodging of cases against officers who have falsely implicated them.

The issue has a political dimension as many opposition parties have been giving voice to the Muslim concerns and pointing fingers at the Centre.

The Samajwadi Party,for instance,had in its election manifesto promised the release of “innocent Muslim youths who are in jail on terror charges.” SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav earlier this month claimed that the Akhilesh Yadav government has released 400 minority youth from Uttar Pradesh’s jails.

The latest such case which made national headlines involved journalist Muthi-ur-Rehman Siddiqui and DRDO scientist Aijaz Ahmed Mirza,who were arrested by the Bangalore Police in an alleged terror plot seven months ago but released on bail after the NIA failed to file charges against them.

“I am also of the view that arresting and keeping innocent persons in custody knowingly,is indeed a serious offence and our government is committed to ensuring strong action against the officers responsible in all such cases and you have my assurance that this will happen,” Shinde wrote to Khan.

The minority affairs minister had conveyed to Shinde that there was a case for setting up special courts to dispose of such cases within a year’s time,payment of compensation and rehabilitation of innocent victims and action against those responsible in cases where the court has held that evidence has been concocted or misrepresented by the investigating agencies to implicate innocents.

“This will act as deterrent in the deliberate implication of innocents,” Khan had said in his February 6 letter to Shinde.

As for compensation,Shinde said,“each case will need to be examined individually”,and pointed out that an acquittal could also be because of lack of enough evidence to prove the charges or because of improper investigation. “It is usually for the courts to pronounce verdicts in appropriate cases regarding the compensation to the given,” he said.

“Where the prosecution is false and malicious,the persons responsible for the false prosecution can be charged under Section 211 of the IPC…Law and order is a state subject,but notwithstanding this,we will take up any cases which may be brought to our notice,where innocent persons have been charged,” he said.

Speaking to The Indian Express,Khan said a mechanism has to be evolved to address this issue. “It is nobody’s intention to interfere in the security of the country. Security of the country is uppermost. But in the name of security of the country,misuse of power cannot be permitted,” he said,adding that there have to be adequate safeguards to prevent misuse. He also favoured putting in place a mechanism to review each case.