By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Kochi: The Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court yesterday rejected the bail plea submitted by Adv NM Siddique, Ernakulam district president of the NCHRO, and another human rights activist Abdussalam. The court took the decision reportedly considering the graveness of the case. Meanwhile, the NCHRO officials accused that the arrest and imprisonment of Adv Siddique and Abdussalam was part of a police conspiracy.
Adv Siddique was taken in police custody on July 21 following a police raid in the NCHRO office in Kochi. The arrest was reportedly on grounds that documents and CDs fomenting communal hatred were got from the NCHRO office. Siddique had complained to the National Human Rights Commission about the ‘witch-hunt against Muslims’ in the name of the investigation into the attack on the professor accused in a blasphemy case. . Both Siddique and Abdussalam were officially arrested on July 23 and are now remanded in the Ernakulam sub-jail.
Meanwhile, NCHRO officials accused that the police action against Siddique was the result of his complaint to the National Human Rights Commission about the atrocities conducted by the police in the Ernakulam district. The Human Rights Commission had then asked the state DGP to submit a report on the matter. They accused that the police had not handed over the copies of the FIR filed against the two to anybody. This had created trouble in applying for bail.
The officials accused that the police raided the office of the NCHRO in the city by breaking the lock. Police conducted the raid without informing the officials and without the witnesses needed. There were accusations that CDs about the Gujarat genocide and the Marad clashes were found from the office. The CDs contained the opinions and speeches of famous historians, thinkers and human rights activists on the Gujarat genocide and the Marad clashes. The CDs were advertised in the ‘Thejas’ daily and magazine and sold. In addition, the copies of the CDs were presented in the major press clubs of the state, said the officials.
This move of denying even the right to approach the Human Rights Commission against the human rights violations committed by the police as part of state terrorism is unfamiliar in Kerala, said Renee Ilene, NCHRO state vice-president. The cruel act against the human rights activists is condemnable. The human rights and civil rights activists of Kerala should come up against the revenge and conspiracy of the police, urged the officials.