From: "Vijay Singh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Geelani Case: Letter to NHRCC
Delhi University Teachers in Defence of S. A. R. Gilani
5B Imperial Avenue, Delhi 110007
The Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission
Samsad Marg
New Delhi
Subject: Disinformation campaign by the police
and sections of the media in the case relating to
the murderous attack on Prof. S. A. R. Geelani
Sir,
As citizens concerned with democratic norms,
justice and human rights in India, we are very
disturbed by the statements emanating from the
Delhi Police, through sections of the print and
the visual media, in the case mentioned above.
In our open letter to the Home Minister, dated 9
February, 2005 (Annexure 1), which was signed by
hundreds of academicians, writers, artists,
journalists and social activists within hours of
the attack on Prof. Geelani, we stated: "we
strongly feel that the involvement of the Delhi
Police itself, especially its Special Branch, in
the crime can not be ruled out. It is clear by
now that this Branch was in the grip of
communal-fascist forces during the entire
proceedings in the Parliament attack case. As
with the other accused in the case, Prof. Geelani
was falsely implicated on the basis of forged
documents and concocted evidence. He was
illegally arrested, brutally tortured and made to
sign on blank sheets of paper by the officers of
the branch. Attempts were made on his life inside
the prison. Per the records submitted by his
defence before the Supreme Court of India, he was
constantly shadowed by the police throughout the
country even after he was honourably acquitted by
the High Court." The needle of suspicion is thus
directed at the Delhi Police until they are able
to exonerate themselves with truthful
investigation.
Instead, as with the entire proceedings in the
Parliament attack case, the Delhi Police has
started a disinformation campaign, with the aid
of sections of the print and the visual media, to
divert the attention of the country away from the
real issues of the case. We wish to draw your
attention to four specific aspects of this
campaign among many others.
1. Involvement of Ms. Haksar: There is a sinister
attempt to target Ms. Nandita Haksar, Prof.
Geelani's lawyer and an outstanding human rights
activist of the country. Ms. Haksar had defended
the rights of the unempowered for many decades.
With exemplary courage and dedication to
democracy and justice, Ms. Haksar had defended
the rights of Prof. Geelani in a trial that was
marked with shocking instances of prejudice and
violation of law. She had also protected the
entire Geelani family from abuse and suffering
with almost motherly care.
The complaint of the police (Annexure 2) that
they were not informed of the attack in time thus
allowing "vital" clues to disappear is without
any basis. When Geelani knocked on their door
with several bullets inside his body, Ms. Haksar
and her husband did what we would expect a human
being to do, namely, to transfer the critically
injured immediately to a reputed hospital.
Geelani's life was possibly saved due to their
prompt action. Moreover, as Ms. Haksar has
repeatedly stated, the prime suspect in this case
is the Delhi Police itself. It is natural that
seeking help from the possible perpetrators of
the crime did not strike her at that critical
moment.
On the other hand, when some of us visited the
scene of attack nearly five hours after the
event, we found the place swarming with police
from the Crime Brance; yet, the crucial stretch
of road between the car and the Haksar house had
not been cordoned off. This enabled cars and
people, including police personnel, to trampel
all over possible clues in the soggy, muddy
stretch of road.
2. Geelani as a "suspect": An attempt is being
made, both by the police and some of the media,
to drag in aspects of the Parliament attack case
to vilify Prof. Geelani (Annexure 3). Despite his
hounourable acquittal by the High Court, he is
portryed as a person having terrorist links and a
suspect in the case. The attempt clearly is to
lessen the impact of the brutal attack on Geelani
by pointing at his allegedly questionable
character. Apart from the fact that these
allegations, after the judgment of the High
Court, are clearly libelous, they have nothing to
do with the case itself: the only issue right now
is to bring the perpetrators of the attack on
Geelani to justice.
3. Role of other accused: The preceding strategy
is extended to involve even the other accused in
the Parliament attack case - Mohammad Afzal and
Shaukat Hussain Guru - currently languishing in
the death row of the Tihar Jail. It is said that
they might have organized the attack as a revenge
on Geelani (Annexure 4). Not only that the
accused are lodged in high-security isolated
cells of the Tihar Jail for the past three years,
as noted, it is on record that they did not even
have the resources to organize their legal
defence. Eminent lawyers and human rights
activists had to step in to provide legal
assistance to them. Also, Mohammad Afzal had
clearly exonerated Prof. Geelani from any
involvement in the Parliament attack case. Even
then, granting that they organized hired killers
from inside the jail, could they have done it
without direct complicity of the police and the
jail administration?
4. Harassment of family: The police and sections
of the media are claiming that the clothes
Geelani was wearing during the attack were
"hidden" by the family (Annexure 5). The fact is
that, in a routine manner, the clothes were
handed over to the family by the hospital, and
they handed them over to the police the moment
they asked for it (Annexure 6). The police cannot
fail to know this.
Moreover, they have kept Geelani's car under
seizure and the family is not able to use it
during this harrowing period. They have also
seized the computer used by Geelani's daughter
ostensibly to search for Geelani's enemies. In
our opinion, these actions not only show the
failure of the police to launch a serious
investigation into this massive crime, there is
an attempt to personalize what is clearly an
enormous political crime. Who are the police
trying to shield with these diversionary tactics?
In view of the grave implications of the concerns just raised, we urge you to:
(1) direct the police and the Press Council to
refrain the police and the media from spreading
falsities
(2) direct them to strictly obey the principles of natural justice
(3) ask the government to hand over the case to
an independent judicial inquiry with CBI as the
investigating agency.
Annexure 1: Open Letter to Home Minister,
www.sacw.net/hrights/OletterHomeMin9feb05.html
Annexure 2: "Delay in reporting incident made
task tough for police", The Hindu, 10/2;
"Cops hit back: Clues
lost as we were not told in time", Times of India
12/2.
Annexure 3: "Hounded by cops?", Times of India, 11/2
Annexure 4: "Whodunit tales and theories", Times of India,11/2
Annexure 5: "New Holes in Geelani case", Times of India, 13/2
Annexure 6: "A blood-stained sweater", Hindustan Times, 13/2.
CC: 1. The Police Commissioner, Delhi Police
2. The Hon'ble Minister of Home Affairs, Govt. of India
Sincerely,
1. Tripta Wahi (Convenor), Delhi University
2. Neeraj Malik (Convenor), Delhi University
3. Nirmalangshu Mukherji, Delhi University
4. Vijay Singh, Delhi University
5. Javed Malik, Delhi University
6. Sanghamitra Misra, CSCS Bangalore
7. Deepika Tandon, Delhi University
8. Shashi Saxena, Delhi University
9. Sharmila Purkayastha, Delhi University
10. N. D. Pancholi, PUCL
11. Uma Chakravarti, Delhi University
12. Anand Chakravarti , Delhi University
13. S.R. Ilyas, Journalist
14. Svati Joshi, Delhi University
15. Sunil Kumar Mandiwal, Delhi University
16. K. Balagopal, Human Rights Forum Hyderabad
17. Harish Dhawan, Delhi University
18. Nagraj Adve, PUDR
19. Kr. Sanjay Singh, Delhi University
20. Debashish, DSU Delhi
21. Ujjwal K. Singh, Delhi University
22. Bela Bhatia, CSDS
23. Gautam Navlakha, EPW
24. Nandini Sundar, PUDR
25. Joseph Mathew, Writer
26. Sunita Kumari, Nari Mukti Sanghathan
27. Shahana Bhattacharya, PUDR
28. Rakesh Shukla, PUDR
29. Tapas Ranjan Saha, Delhi University
30. Gangesh, Jawaharlal Nehru University
31. Babul Dhkar, Delhi University
32. Awadesh, Jawaharlal Nehru University
33. Mona Das, Jawaharlal Nehru
34. Dhwajendra Dhawal, PDSU
35. Chitra Joshi, IPC
36. Veena Naregal, IEG
37.savad rahman,journalist,kerala
38.benny joseph
39.m.abdul rasheed
40.sumi ashraf,u.a.e
41.joshi vincent,kochi
42.thara john
43.s.m.naufal,calicut university
44.sabeedha rasheed
45.saira .p.thomas,journalist
