MUMBAI, 24 July 2007 — Expressing serious concern over the increased discrimination against Muslims and the misuse of draconian laws like Maharashtra Control of Organized Crimes (MCOCA), Prevention of Terrorists Act (POTA) and Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (TADA) Act against the Muslim community, federal minister for science and technology and renowned lawyer Kapil Sibal on Sunday pulled up the state government.
He urged the federal government to keep a tight control over the investigations in such issues and also to set up a mechanism to keep a check over the misuse of the draconian laws against Muslims.
Speaking at a meeting of Muslim community members organized by social activists Teesta Setalvad and Nasir Mulla, Sibal said that the investigating agencies misuse MCOCA, POTA and TADA to suit their ends. And answers to these cannot be found in the lower courts.
“If laws are wrongly implemented against the Muslims, then instead of presenting a single such case, it is necessary that all similar other cases too should be tagged together and referred to the High Court or the Supreme Court,” Sibal said and suggested that if injustice is being meted out to a member of the Muslim community, then the community should not hesitate to exert pressure on the politicians without any fear. “It is nothing new, but an old established fact that the bureaucracy and the police have been taking anti-Muslim stand and discriminating against them. And to tackle such issues the need is to provide employment to highly educated and competent persons,” he said.
Renowned lawyer Mubin Solkar said that several innocent Muslims arrested on terrorism charges have been languishing in prisons for several years without trial.
Due to intense pressure from the Muslim community, the government had to repeal POTA and criticized the continuation of MCOCA and other draconian preventive laws and dangerous sections of the law.
Teesta Setalvad in her speech targeted the bureaucracy, and said that like the earlier appointed lawyers and advisers of the BJP-led saffron alliance government, there was no change in views and stand of the present Congress-NCP led Democratic Front government in Maharashtra against the Muslims. Even if the BJP-Shiv Sena saffron combine is not in power, yet there is an element of suspicion as to whether the Maharashtra government too was adopting an anti-Muslim stand like the Gujarat government, she said.
“Whether it is the fake police encounter of Ishrat Shaikh in Gujarat or the death of Khwaja Yunus in police custody, both the incidents highlight the anti-Muslim policy of the two state governments,” she said and added that there should be transparency in the police investigations. There would be better results, if the police first take the Muslim community into confidence, while investigating those involved in terrorist activities, she added.
Meanwhile there were reports that a senior federal minister had called for a late evening meeting of senior police and Home Department officials to ask as to why MCOCA was being clamped against only one particular community. The senior minister said to be from an alliance party in the UPA federal government. The meeting between the minister and the senior police and civil officers was kept under wraps of tight secrecy.
State Director General of Police P.S. Pasricha when asked to shed light on the meeting, refused to comment stating that only State Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil would be in a position to say something on the issue. Patil was unavailable for his reaction despite several attempts to contact him.
