By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Hyderabad: Continuing his series of pleas for pardon to jailed convicts, Press Council of India Chairman Markandey Katju seeks release of jailed police constable Abdul Qadeer, who is languishing in jail for past 22 years for killing his senior officer.
Abdul Qadeer, during the charged communal environment of Hyderabad in 1990 communal riots shot dead Asst. Commissioner of Police A. Sataya, allegedly due to mental illness and unable to bear atrocities committed on his community members by senior police officers. In 1992 he was sentenced to life imprisonment, since than he has suffered from many diseases, and become the longest serving prisoner in Andhra Pradesh jail history.
File Photoo of Abdul Qadeer at the hospital. [TCN Photo]
At the All India Mushaira conducted by Urdu Heritage Carvan, Siasat Urdu daily editor Zahid Ali Khan read out the letter wrote by justice Katju to Governor of Andhra Pradesh seeking pardon of Abdul Qadeer under article 161 of the constitution.
As Zahid Ali Khan read out the letter in the Mushaira where Justice Markandey Katju was the chief guest, crowds got emotional and shouted slogans parsing Justice Katju, like ‘justice Katju zindabad’.
In the letter Justice Katju stated that Abdul Qadeer has already spent 22 years in prison and have his leg amputated due to diabetic disease, he told Andhra Governor that Abdul Qadeer is eligible to get pardoned under article 161, which gives power to state governor to pardon jailed convicts.
Later on Saturday Katju met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on the sidelines of Hyderabad convention on the challenges faced by Urdu, and again sought the pardon for Abdul Qadeer personally.
Justice Katju told chief minister that indeed Abdul Qadeer has done a heinous crime, and he got his punishment, by spending 22 years in jail, and as he is suffering from various diseases, government should have mercy on him.
Keeping with his Shakesphere jingle’s, Justice Katju told Andhra Pradesh CM, ‘If you have mercy on him, your prestige will go sky high.’
Related:
More than a lifetime: Abdul Qadeer, a prisoner for 22 years