New Delhi : The Delhi High Court on Thursday posted for August 26 a plea over alleged morphing of a photo of India’s first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and union Minister Najma Heptulla.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher posted the matter for August 26 after advocate appearing for the government told the court that the additional solicitor general was not present in the court and sought adjournment.
After the court posted the matter for August 26, the advocate appearing for petitioner sought short date, but the court turned down the plea, saying that “the matter can wait, there is no fire in the matter.”
The court was hearing a plea by Azad’s grand-nephew Firoz Bakht Ahmed, seeking to bring to a logical end the preliminary inquiries into the alleged morphing of a photo of Maulana Azad and Najma Heptulla.
Firoz Bakht Ahmed had moved the court alleging that the photo morphing was done at Heptulla’s instance when she headed the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
Heptulla is the minority affairs minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet. She is also a grand-niece of Maulana Azad.
An intervention application has also been filed in the case by Indian Foreign Service officer Madhup Mohta, who conducted the administrative inquiry in the matter in 2005. He said morphing was done at the instance of Heptulla, who was the president of the ICCR at that time.
The court earlier asked the CBI to produce the relevant records for the court’s perusal to show prima facie what steps were taken to inquire into the photo morphing incident.
Mohta moved the court, saying he was posted as director of the ICCR during the year 2005, when the ICCR published the book containing the allegedly morphed photo.
Saying he was the whistle-blower who first detected the morphing of the photo, Mohta said he conducted a part administrative inquiry on the issue within the ICCR (the other part of the said inquiry was conducted by the director general of the ICCR).
“For this purpose, Mohta had examined certain witnesses, recorded their statements and had collected relevant documents/photographs used for morphing. At that time it was found that there was sufficient evidence to show that the morphing of the photograph had been done at the instance of Najma Heptulla,” advocate Ashok Dhamija told court, appearing for Mohta.
The alleged morphed photograph was published in a book titled “Journey of a Legend: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad 1888-1958” by the ICCR in 2005 and showed Azad seating with Heptulla after her graduation.
The publication was later withdrawn by the ICCR.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for Firoz Bakht Ahmed, told the court that it was a morphed photograph as Heptulla graduated in May 1958, whereas Maulana Azad passed away on February 22, 1958.