Syed Ali Ahmed | India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, JUNE 22—The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind has said that it will challenge the police chargesheet in Northeast Delhi riot cases in the court through a panel of advocates.
“The chargesheet is one-sided, biased and reflects special mindset”, alleged Jamiat president Maulana Arshad Madani.
“The Jamiat will use all possible legal means to bring justice to the victims. A team of lawyers will oversee the cases of the victims and the accused persons who have been falsely implicated”, declared the Jamiat chief.
On indiscriminate arrests of anti-CAA activists and unilateral actions in the Delhi riots, he said, “It is unfortunate that even in the midst of lockdown, the police were being used by the politicians to carry out their secret agenda, especially against the Muslim minority. Due to fear of coronavirus when people couldn’t even get out of their homes, innocent and oppressed Muslims are currently being arrested on charges of campaigning against CAA”, the Jamiat leader said.
“Unfortunately, human rights activists like former bureaucrat Harsh Mander and D.S. Bindra, who distributed food among the activists by running charity kitchen at Shaheen Bagh, have also been falsely implicated by the police”, he said.
Maulana Madani said the recent comment of the Telangana High Court is enough to understand the police’s treatment regarding Muslims all over the country. It is noteworthy that Telangana High Court while hearing a PIL, strongly damned the police for registering the highest number of cases against Muslims during the lockdown, and asked Hyderabad police as to why the highest number of cases against lockdown violations were registered only against Muslims. Does this mean that other people did not violate the lockdown?
“During the hearing, the bench observed that the police had treated the Muslim minority with bias during the lockdown”, the Jamiat leader pointed out.
“In Delhi, the police and other security agencies are arresting the youths, who were active in protest against CAA and NRC, under the UAPA. The media is creating an atmosphere against them by conducting media trials”, he further alleged.
Maulana Madani said that out of the 53 people killed in the riots, 38 were Muslims who were brutally killed by the rioters, but police have investigated only a few of them, and the responsibility for killing the rest of the people has been placed on the heads of unknown rioters.
“In contrast, dozens of Muslims have been named and charged in connection with the death of IB officer Ankit Sharma and police constable Ratan Lal”, he pointed out.
He said, “The reality is that ignoring the hateful and provocative speeches and statements of BJP leaders Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma who were allegedly responsible for the riots, the entire responsibility has been placed on the protesters. Strict legal provisions have been invoked against them, including Sections 120-B, 153-A and 124-A of IPC, in addition to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.”
Maulana Madani also pointed out that the lawyers appointed by the Delhi government to pursue all the above cases are Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India, Aman Lekhi, Additional Solicitor General of India, who is husband of BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, and Maninder Singh, senior Advocate, who always represent the BJP Government in the Supreme Court. Meenakshi has already supported BJP leader Kapil Mishra in Parliament.
“In such a situation, it can be guessed that what the three senior lawyers of government will plead for the victims? Can they be expected to bring justice to the victims? It would be enough to understand regarding Tushar Mehta that in the 2002 Gujarat riots, he was representing the accused persons from lower courts to the Supreme Court. In this situation, question arises that why did the government appoint Tushar Mehta as public prosecutor to pursue riot cases?” Maulana Madani asks.
