Shinde's ‘Free innocent Muslim youth’ policy faces immediate UP test

NEW DELHI: Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde could hardly have imagined he would be made to walk the talk so soon on the order to immediately release from jails ‘innocent’ youth of the minority community.


The Centre has been told to make clear its stand on the UP government attempts to withdraw terror cases against 19 Muslims ahead of the hearing in the case on October 4.

The state had recommended withdrawal of prosecution “in the public interest”. But, the UP high court stayed the release process on June 7 and issued a notice to Attorney General GE Vahanvati on September 6 seeking the Centre’s view on the same.

A government source said “clarifications” had been sought from the home ministry whether the state had taken permission from the Centre to withdraw the cases since many accused faced charges under a central statute, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act ( UAPA), 1967 and whether the Centre was in agreement with the stand taken by the state government that the cases were withdrawn in the public interest.

“The home ministry has checked its records and found that UP did not seek any permission to withdraw the cases that were lodged under provisions of a central statute (UAPA),” a source said, adding that the home ministry was in a bind on whether to back the state government’s stand in withdrawing the cases. The Centre is yet to file any affidavit before the HC.

The state planned to relesae even those accused of blasts in court premises of Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi in 2007.

While the home ministry’s letter on Monday to ensure release of wrongly arrested minority youth has been dubbed “communal politics” by the BJP, it is ironical the Congress ruled-states of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have been the most notorious in implicating minority youth in terror cases.

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad made wrong arrests of nine Muslim youth for the Malegaon blasts of 2006 while the AP police arrested 21 Muslims for the 2007 Mecca Masjid blasts. These youth were absolved of the charges after spending five years in jail.

Muthi-Ur-Rehman Siddiqui, a Karnataka-based journalist was arrested wrongly on terror charges last year and spent five months in jail.

Riot-Accused Nazir is State Guest in UP

The UP government recently hosted a riot accused and even provided him a state aircraft to visit Lucknow to meet CM Akhilesh Yadav and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, reports Our Political Bureaufrom Lucknow.

The state officials flew to Muzaffarnagar to bring clerics, including Maulana Nazir, who is the head of a Madarsa in Jansath village, to Lucknow. Nazir was slapped with an FIR on September 3 for inciting violence. On hosting a riot accused, Akhilesh said: "The government will treat all sections equally and ensure justice. Those guilty of riots will be punished".

The BJP said that while its leaders were arrested, other accused, like Maulana Nazir, were being hosted by the government.