India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI—Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has welcomed the Rajasthan High Court judgment acquitting those falsely implicated in the May 2008 Jaipur blasts, and demanded compensation for the acquitted persons, besides action against the police persons who framed false charges in the case. The judgement came on Wednesday.
JIH is one of the leading socio-religious organisation of Indian Muslims.
A total of 71 persons died, and 185 were injured in the two blasts that took place within a space of 20 minutes in crowded markets of Jaipur.
In a statement released to the media, JIH Vice-President Prof. Mohammad Salim Engineer said the two-judge bench of the High Court comprising Justices Pankaj Bhandari and Sameer Jain that overturned the verdict of the trial court awarding death sentence to the four accused persons, raised several disturbing questions.
“As the accused have been pronounced innocent, it implies that the real perpetrators of the crime are still at large,” he said in his statement.
“Will the government set up a new team to inquire into and trace the criminals who planned and executed the blasts?” he questioned.
The JIH leader suggested that the government must re-investigate it as “justice has eluded the relatives of those who died and were injured in the blasts.”
“The issue of justice for the victims of the blasts is fundamental and should not be ignored,” he stressed.
Prof Salim pointed out that the High Court had identified various flaws and gaping holes in the investigation that led to the accused being falsely implicated in the case”.
The JIH vice-president agreed with the Court that the guilty police officers who framed false charges should be identified and punished.
He strongly demanded compensation to the five acquitted persons as they lost 15 years of their precious lives in jail because of the false cases built against them by investigating officials.
“Moreover, their families endured their incarceration with the added disgrace of being labelled as a family of “terrorists”. It is a problem of our society that presumes the accused to be guilty without the charges being proved,” the JIH leader stated.
“Jamaat believes that the judgment is yet another example of how the state has completely failed in tracing the real culprits behind the various acts of terror in the country but has been eager to target innocents using draconian laws and thus destroying their lives along with their families. Faulty investigations have weakened our democracy and undermined the civil liberties of ordinary citizens,” Prof. Salim commented.
The JIH leader appreciated members of civil society who took cudgels on behalf of the innocent and played a pivotal role in pursuing their case through a team of competent lawyers.
