By A Mirsab, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: One of the acquitted persons in Akshardham terror case of 2002 has moved Supreme Court after eight months of his acquittal praying to criminally charge Gujarat police officials, who had fabricated the case against him, and also to compensate him for the 11 years he spent behind bars under false allegations.
The Supreme Court had acquitting six men, who were convicted earlier by Gujarat courts for their involvement in Akshadham case and had rebuked the investigative agency even as it termed the acquitted persons as completely innocent. Three of them were sentenced to death, one to life and two others were given 10 years of imprisonment by POTA and Gujarat High Court.
Akshardham temple (file photo)
Abdul Qaiyum Muftisaab, one of the acquitted person in the case, has on Thursday filed a petition before the Supreme Court for the issuance of a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction to the Gujarat State to adequately compensate him for “the mental and physical trauma suffered by him and his family for almost 11 years on account of his incarceration and being labelled a terrorist.”
He also urged in his petition for exemplary punishment be given to all those police officials involved in falsely implicating him in the case.
Muftisaab was earlier sentenced for life by the special POTA court in Ahmedabad. The sentence was subsequently upheld by the Gujarat High Court. The Supreme Court, in its minutely considered judgment dated May 16, 2014 acquitted all the six accused and had heavily come down upon the investigating officers.
While deciding the case, the Supreme Court had said in its conclusion: “Before parting with the judgment, we intend to express our anguish about the incompetence with which the investigating agencies conducted the investigation of the case of such a grievous nature, involving the integrity and security of the nation. Instead of booking the real culprits responsible for taking so many precious lives, the police caught innocent people and imposed the grievous charges against them which resulted in their conviction and subsequent sentencing.”
Jamiat Ulama –e-Hind, a nongovernmental organisation that had legally helped Muftisaab and other accused in representing their case before the Supreme Court, has again extended help to Muftisaab in filing the present petition too.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (Maharashtra) legal secretary Gulzar Azmi has said that Jamiat will also extended help in filing similar petition for other five acquitted persons, including three who were awarded death sentence by Gujarat courts, in near future.
The present petition has been filed by Muftisaab against five respondents that include four police officers viz. D G Vanzara, G L Singhal, V D Vanar and R I Patel. Gujarat state is the prime respondent.
The petition details all the legal and logical flaws caught by the Supreme Court before pronouncing acquittal of all the accused from the case and blamed Gujarat police officers for implicating Muftisaab and other acquitted persons in the case.
“Thus, it is crystal clear that the Fundamental Rights, of the present petitioner enshrined under Articles 20 and 21 of the Constitution of India, have been flagrantly infringed by the officers of the respondent state and there is incontrovertible evidence to corroborate the same,” the petition reads after explaining the findings of the apex court in its order of acquittal.
Muftisaab further alleged that the findings of Supreme Court most eloquently established that he was wrongly prosecuted by the police officers to augment their careers and reminds court of its own words in the May 16, 2014 order of acquittal that categorically held that the erring officers D G Vanzara and G L Singhal must be made to suffer the consequences of their criminal action.
He expressed his haplessness of directly filing a case against erring officers due to legal hurdle and asked court’s intervention for the beginning of criminal proceedings against those officers. “The petitioner, who has undergone a prolonged period of persecution, cannot by himself file a complaint against Respondent no. 2 and Respondent no. 3 (sic) for the offences under Section 192-195 CrPC. Besides a complaint for the same can only be filed under orders of this Hon’ble Court in view of Section 195 (1) CrPC (sic),” reads the petition.
File photo (Courtesy: The Hindu)
He blamed these investigating and prosecuting officers for unfathomable persecution and sufferings he and his family had to undergo for 11 years accompanied by physical and mental trauma of being labelled a terrorist.
“…the State cannot, return to the petitioner or undo the suffering of 11 years of incarceration. Nonetheless, the investigating officers must be held responsible for having deprived him of the most precious right of liberty for which the petitioner continue to suffer the ignominy of criminal prosecution which has brought him huge amount of shame and humiliation,” Muftisaab said in the petition.
He also alleged that his family had to bear the brunt in defending the case for 11 years due to false and fabricated allegations leveled against him that broke his family financially; he says he must now be compensated by Gujarat state for the 11 long years of agony that devastated his youth and instead brought shame and humiliation.
“…the award of compensation as a public law remedy for violation of the fundamental rights enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution was evolved in the last two and a half decades and this Hon’ble Court has awarded monetary compensation for infringement of fundamental rights in a number of cases. In the present case too, it is patently clear that there has been a gross and glaring infringement of fundamental rights of the petitioner by the officers of Gujarat State,” he pleaded in the petition.
Related:
SC referred to Ajmal Kasab case to fortify its judgment in Akshardham case
‘POTA Court and Gujarat HC worked with pre-conceived mind,’ says lawyer in Akshardham case
Relevant Observations of Supreme Court in ‘Akshardham Temple terror case’
Akshardham case: JUH was the only support before and after the release
Akshardham terror trail: Gujarat Police, 6 innocents and Jamiat Ulema