By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Relatives of Gauhar Aziz Khomany, who was arrested by the special cell of Delhi Police on 23rd November on charges of being an Indian Mujahideen operative, have alleged that while arresting Khomany, the police violated the Supreme Court guidelines on making arrests.
The SC Guidelines on arrest say that within 8-12 hours of making any arrests the police must inform the family of the person concerned about his arrest and the location where s/he has been kept by the police. Importantly till date, no official information about the arrest has been made to Khomany’s family members.
Khomany’s brother Hasan Aziz Amir has approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), seeking their intervention in “this case of human rights violation.”
While talking to TwoCircles.net, Hasan Aziz Amir said, “Police has violated the Supreme Court directive as enunciated in the D.K.Basu Guidelines by failing to inform the family about his arrest. Till date, no official information about the arrest has been made to any of the family members and whatever we information we are getting about my brother, is through the media.”
Akhlaq Ahmad of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) said that the manner in which Khomany was arrested, showed that the police not only violated the SC Guidelines on making arrests it also violated the UN’s International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, of which India is a signatory. Ahmad also criticized Delhi Police saying that “now human rights violation by the police, while picking up Muslim youths in terror cases has become a normal trend.”
“Gauhar is an IM operative, who in 2003 while he was in his village, came in contact with Imran another alleged IM operative. In 2007, Gauhar came to Delhi and in November 2008, he renewed his contacts with Imran and joined Indian Mujahideen He provided Imran with logistic and financial support,” claims the Delhi police.
Gauhar was arrested on the inputs provided by Qateel Siddiqui, who was also been arrested by the Special cell, Delhi police on the charges of being an IM operative. Amir informed TCN that Qateel used to work in Gauhar’s construction business as labor supervisor but he had quit his job about an year ago.
Gauhar Aziz Khumany [Photo Courtesy: Hasan Aziz Amir]
Amir broke down while arguing for his brother’s innocence. He categorically denied his brother having any links with any terror group. “My brother was a law abiding citizen who was doing his construction business. He is being falsely implicated in to the terror case,” added Amir, who was the vice president of the Aligarh Muslim University Students Union (AMUSU) and also an elected court member of the AMU.
“Had Gauhar been actually involved in terror activities, he would have gone underground and evaded arrest like Qateel did, when he got to know about police look out for him,” added Amir.
Amir said that Gauhar’s family and friends, were shocked to know about his arrest because “Gauhar is known for commitment towards social work. He said that quite recently Gauhar spearheaded an anti-tobacco and anti-dowry campaign in his native place in Darbhanga in Bihar.”
Gauhar himself is a mechanical engineer and comes from a well educated family. After working with a multi national firm in Dubai, Gauhar came to India because of family commitments and established Irene Engineering Contracting Company. One of Gauhar’s brothers, is a senior scientist in Chicago and another a civil engineer in Saudi Arabia. Gauhar is also a relative of Dr. Kaleem Ahmad Ajiz, a world renowned Urdu poet who was awarded with a Padam Shree by the government of India.