By TCN News
Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee expressed grave concern over the death sentence awarded to five Muslim youth who were accused in the Dilsukhnagar blast case, and said it was based on an unfair trial.
“This committee slams the way trial is conducted without providing any proper legal assistance. There are many errors in conducting trial, the foremost is NIA constituted a fast track court in Cherlapally high security prison. The access to the court for the advocates, media and people was restricted. It was conducted in hasty manner by avoiding due course of law,” the committee said.
The Hyderabad-based organisation added that conducting the trial in the four walls of a high security prison and awarding the death sentence to five Muslim youth by showing them as guilty of terror charges and responsible for Dilsukhnagar bomb blasts is nothing but travesty of justice. “Dilsukhnagar bomb blast is a heinous crime committed against humanity. For this heinous crime the investigation is not done in proper manner but it was conducted with prejudiced mindset. As the practice existed among the investigative agencies from day one, they held a particular group responsible for the blasts,” the committee added.
“Whenever there is a blast in any corner of the country, the police, media and the investigative agencies immediately blame Muslim youth without even any basic investigation. And if at all the investigation is done, it is done with prejudice manner; if the investigation is done with such prejudiced mindset, trial done within the confines of four walls and death sentence declared then how can the demand of justice prevail. It is learnt from the newspaper reports that the accused counsel was not present and even the family members were also not present; these five accused had submitted a petition stating that they have nothing to do with the blasts and they are innocent,” the committee said in its press release.
The committee said it was it was largely believed that the NIA court did not think proper to wait for the accused counsel to be present at the hearing to put forth his arguments because “the public prosecutor, the judge and the court was already mentally prepared that they should be given death sentence. No one in fact knows what went on in the hearings inside the high security confined walls. Media is writing their own stories and police personnel are giving their own versions.”
“Civil Liberties demands to re-trial the case in the open court not in the confined walls and also provide all legal remedies to the accused persons so that justice can be done and the standard of justice can prevail. This committee also demands the government of India to abolish the death penalty so that the legal procedural system is not misused to take away anyone’s’ life,” the committee added.