On 23rd November 2007, several
blasts took place at court premises in Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow. No one
was killed but many people were wounded. Several Muslim youths were rounded up
for the blasts. About a month after the blasts, the Special Task Force of UP
Police on 22nd December
2007 presented Hakim Tariq and Khalid Mujahid before the media in Barabanki
district of UP. The police claimed the duo was arrested from the railway
station in the district on the same day with huge arms and ammunition including
RDX.
However, the family members of the
duo and the villagers claimed the duo was picked about 10 days before and not
in Barabanki. According to them, the state police picked Hakim Tariq on 12th
December 2007 in Azamgarh and Khalid Mujahid on 16th December in Jaunpur. Many
people had witnessed the picking, and a day after their picking the family had
filed a complaint with the local police in Azamgarh and Barabanki. When the UP
Police presented the duo as arrested in Barabanki on 22nd December, the family members and
villagers got infuriated, they came out on the streets to protest. People
protested in Azamgarh and Jaunpur and demanded the then chief minister Mayawati
to order an inquiry into the arrest of the duo. Succumbing to the public
pressure, on 14th March 2008 the chief minister constituted one-man
RD Nimesh Commission to look into the claims of the police and the family
members of the duo. About five years of inquiry, the commission submitted the
report on 31st August
2012.
Findings of the Commission
“The arrest of Khalid Mujahid and
Tariq Qasmi with objectionable items in the morning of 22nd Dec. 2007 in
Barabanki looks doubtful and the statements of the witnesses of the prosecution
cannot be believed fully,” said the commission in its report.
The commission recommended legal
action against the officers who implicated the duo in the case. “Therefore, it
is recommended that the officers and staff who played key role in the
conspiracy and thus violated the laws should be identified and legal actions
should be taken against them.”
However, the commission itself did
not fix responsibility for the lapses on any particular officer citing the case
being trialed in court.
“The above case is pending before
the District Court, Barabanki, so at this level we cannot fix responsibility on
any person involved in the incident,” said the commission.
The Commission also made 12
recommendations to the state government to check recurrence of such incidents.
“In a terror case, a gazetted
officer out of Police department should be made witness to recovery,”
recommended the commission.
“Interrogation of the accused
should be recorded on video,” is another recommendation.
“Special Courts should be set up to
hear such cases,” recommended the commission.
Courtesy: http://sanhati.com/ and http://muslimmirror.com
