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The Case That Never Was: A JTSA Report on the ‘SIMI’ Trial of Jaipur
April 7, 2012
tags: Indian Muslims, Jaipur blast, Rajasthan, Students Islamic
Movement of India, terrorism, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act
by Shivam Vij
In September 2001, the central government banned Students Islamic
Movement of India (SIMI) through a notification. Since then, the ban
has become a convenient pretext for the police and investigative
agencies to arbitrarily pick, detain and then arrest and frame Muslim
youth, ostensibly on charges of carrying on the activities of the
banned organization. Sections 3, 10, 13 of Unlawful Activities
Prevention Act (UAPA 1967) have been invoked against scores, if not
hundreds of Muslim youth across the country. Some of these men had
been active in SIMI prior to its ban; some had outgrown the
organization because they had crossed 30 years—the age limit for
membership in the organization; some were guilty of having
acquaintances, friends or relatives who had been involved or had been
office bearers in SIMI. On most occasions, the cases against former
members or purported activists of SIMI have rested on seizure of
banned literature, namely copies of magazines published by SIMI before
the ban. The flimsiness of evidence –and the sketchiness of charges—
has resulted in dozens of acquittals; but equally true is the fact
that the overwhelming nature of the ‘war on terror’ discourse and its
institutional structures has allowed the conviction of many even in
face of glaring lack of evidence.
The JAMIA TEACHERS SOLIDARITY ASSOCIATION (JTSA) profiles here one
such case, which came to be known as the Jaipur blasts case, even
though the accused were not charged with either conspiracy or
execution of bomb blasts in Jaipur in 2008. So what were these men
guilty of? According to the FIR and chargesheet, they were responsible
for carrying out activities of the banned SIMI. How and why did these
men come to be identified with the Jaipur blasts? Theirs is a terrible
and tragic tale of frame up by the Rajasthan police. It is above all
testimony to the employment of UAPA against alleged or former members
of SIMI and of the manner in which rule of law is subverted, violated
and discarded as soon as the ‘T’ word is uttered.
http://kafilabackup.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/jtsa_report_jaipur_trial_web.pdf
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You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot
build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you
will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a
whole.
-AMBEDKAR
http://venukm.blogspot.com
http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur
http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com
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