By TCN News:
Hyderabad: Civil liberties monitoring committee has strongly condemned the verdict of the special court for awarding capital punishment to two youths and life imprisonment to one youth in twin blast cases.
On August 25, 2007 there were two bomb blasts that claimed at least 42 lives. The blasts took place in Lumbini Amusement Park and Gokul Chat Bhandar of Hyderabad. A special court was appointed to deal with this case. After 11 years the verdict was pronounced on 11th September awarding death penalty to two city based youth Anique Syed and Akbar Ismail Choudhary and life imprisonment to Tariq Anjum.
Civil liberties monitoring committee (CLMC) in its press release has denounced this judgement and termed it as unfair which violated the rules laid down for a free and fair trial. CLMC has also pointed out to the fact that that the trial has taken place in the four walls of prison and counter intelligence used all tactics to influence the court. The court’s verdict thus clearly reflects the double standards practised in the lower judicial institutions.
CLMC has also brought to light another bomb blast case of Hyderabad that of the Mecca Masjid in which the court had acquitted all the accused even though they had confessed to their crime whereas these Muslim youth against whom there is no crucial or direct evidence have been found guilty and sent to the gallows.
This could well be a verdict pronounced under political pressure keeping in mind the elections that are round the corner, said the press release. Making Muslims the scape goats, demonising them, branding them as Indian Mujahideen or terrorists, implicating them in false terror cases has become a routine practise in India.
Expressing concern over the sad state of affairs CLMC has demanded that justice be done to both the victims of the blasts and the innocent youth falsely implicated in these blast cases. Death penalty in principal should be abolished which is not a form of punishment but an inhuman act.