Approach courts for compensation, MHA tells those acquitted on false terror charges

NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government will not provide any rehabilitation package or suo-moto compensation to youth arrested on false charges of terrorism and released after they were found innocent. Such persons are free to file cases against the police in courts, the Union Home Ministry has said.

The majority arrested on false terror charges hail from Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and are Muslims. In a letter to all states on September 30, 2013, home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had asked states to make efforts to “release and rehabilitate such youth into the mainstream.” However, Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju, told Parliament on Tuesday, the onus was on wrongly-arrested youth to claim compensation from courts. “It is for the courts to pronounce compensation on prayer by the accused if he establishes that he is a victim of false and malicious prosecution.

The victim can also file a case for false and malicious prosecution under Section 211 of Indian Penal Code,” Rijiju told Parliament, responding to Congress member MI Shanavaz’s question on whether government proposes to provide rehabilitation packages for youths arrested on false terror charges.


The ministry has also said that there were adequate constitutional and statutory provisions available to all persons including those who are accused of any offence including terrorism to seek legal redress.

“Further, every action of the investigating agency is subject to legal scrutiny. Acquittal o f accused by courts is also an outcome of free and fair trial. The law enables the courts at the conclusion of the trail, if it results in acquittal, to pass strictures on the nature and quality of investigation and the evidence collected,” the minister said in his reply.

Shinde in his letter had asked states that no member of the Muslim community was wrongfully implicated in terror cases and also asked for action against cops who wrongly implicate them in terror cases. BJP and then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi had objected to SHinde’s letter. Modi had termed it to be against the tenets of the Constitution. The Congress government in Andhra Pradesh had paid Rs 70 lakh in compensation to Muslim youth arrested wrongly for the Mecca Masjid blasts.