People's Democracy

 UTTAR PRADESH

CPI(M) Submits Memo to CM

Over False Cases on Muslim Youth

Subhashini Ali

 

 

ON January 29, Prakash Karat, general secretary of the CPI(M) and Subhashini Ali, Central Committee member of the CPI(M) met Akhilesh Yadav, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and handed over a memorandum giving details of nine young Muslims, all of whom had been sent to jail for terror-related crimes and all of whom had been acquitted by the courts after being imprisoned for periods ranging from two to nine years.  The memorandum gave all the relevant details of the many false cases that had been registered against these young men in Delhi and different places in Uttar Pradesh for crimes ranging from the killing of a magistrate during a communal clash in Kanpur, to a bomb blast in the same city to acts of sabotage and supply of explosives.  All these charges have been held to have been either concocted or unsubstantiated by the courts.  Of the nine, two are residents of Jammu & Kashmir, Gulzar Wani and Bilal Ahmad, who were arrested by the UP police and jailed in the state.  The other nine, Wasif Haider, Mumtaz, Ghulam Jilan, Shafaat Rasool, Haji Atik (Kanpur), Mohd. Zubair (Kaushambi) and Abdul Mobin (Siddharthnagar), all belong to UP.  The memorandum said that these young men had undergone tremendous financial, emotional and psychological hardship for no fault of their own.  Their families also had been completely traumatised.  After their release, they not only continue to be victims of social ostracism but are unable to find any kind of employment and are burdened with debts.  Their legal expenses have also been responsible for bankrupting their families.  The memorandum, therefore, demanded that the government of Uttar Pradesh compensate these young men adequately and also rehabilitate them.  At the same time, those officials responsible for the acts of commission and omission responsible for the grave injustice done to them should also be punished suitably.

The chief minister went through the memorandum and thanked Prakash Karat for having brought these cases with all the relevant details to his notice.  He said that his government was committed to ensuring that in all cases where injustice has been done, amends are made.  Prakash emphasised the point that in these nine cases, the courts themselves had acquitted these young men and, therefore, there was absolutely no reason for their not being compensated for the grave injustice that they and their families had suffered.  The chief minister gave a categorical assurance that he would do everything possible to help the young men in question.