http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/UP-government-says-it-is-clueless-on-Nimesh-commission-report/articleshow/19626200.cms
UP government says it is clueless on Nimesh commission report
Pervez Iqbal SiddiquiPervez Iqbal Siddiqui, TNN | Apr 19, 2013, 05.21 AM IST
LUCKNOW: More than seven months after the Nimesh commission report was
handed over to chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, the Uttar Pradesh
government has now claimed it has no clue of the report's present
status and location. In a recent Right To Information (RTI) query,
state home department said the report of a probe into the arrest of
two Muslim youths in 2007 on terror charges was yet to reach the
department.
Ever since the report was handed over to the CM by the secretary of
the commission on August 31, 2012, Muslim organisations have been
demanding its release and implementation by the SP government. Former
chief justice of the Allahabad high court retired Justice Rajendra
Sachchar too had demanded the UP government to table the report at a
press conference in Lucknow on September 12, 2012. Recently, a social
group Awami Council for Democracy and Peace had moved an application
under section 311 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) before the
Barabanki court where the trial of the two terror accused is underway,
seeking directions from the court to summon the report.
Social worker and Right to Information (RTI) activist Urvashi Sharma,
who had approached the state home department for the Nimesh report,
has now questioned the very intention of the state government with
regards to the findings of the report. Sharma had first approached the
office of the chief secretary and the state home department specifics
of the report through a written request under the RTI Act on November
23, 2012 and December 26, 2012. "After I failed to get any response
from the two offices, I moved an appeal on January 7, 2013 with the
appeal officer of the home department," Urvashi said talking to TOI.
On March 7, 2013 the state home department informed Urvashi that the
department has not received the Nimesh Commission report yet. "I
decided to get the home department communique verified first-hand as I
could not believe the reply had actually come from the government. I
had doubts that someone could have played mischief. But now it is
confirmed beyond doubt that letter (number 456 RI / CHA - Pu - 4 -
20-13 dated March 7, 2013) signed by Indra Deo Singh under secretary
and information officer of the state home department was a genuine
communique from the government," said Urvashi.
The commission was constituted in 2007 by then chief minister Mayawati
after aggressive protests were held by the minorities in different
parts of the state following the arrest of Khalid Mujahid and Tariq
Qasmi from Azamgarh and Jaunpur respectively, in connection with
serial blasts at district courts in Lucknow, Faizabad and Gorakhpur in
2007.
The report, which is over 1,000 pages, includes statements of 116
witnesses, and documentary evidence. The police witnesses include
officials from Lucknow police and UP's Special Task Force. The
commission also met the accused and their families to record their
statements.
The commission was constituted to probe the police claims that Tariq
Qazmi of Azamgarh and Khalid Mujahid of Jaunpur were arrested on
December 22, 2007 from near the Barabanki railway station and that
they were involved in the serial court blasts and were members of the
Harkat-Ul-Jehad-e-Islami (HuJI). The families of the two, however,
challenged the police claims insisting that Tariq was picked up by the
police on December 12 from Azamgarh and Khalid on December 16 from
Jaunpur. They were kept in illegal detention for five days and forced
to admit their involvement in the blasts, the families alleged.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) had in its manifesto for the 2012 assembly
polls, promised that on coming to power, it would withdraw cases
against innocent Muslim youths languishing in jail on false terror
charges. Both SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and party's state unit head
Akhilesh Yadav had, in their election campaign, repeatedly promised to
implement the Nimesh Commission Report in letter and spirit, if SP
came to power in UP. But, more than a year after the SP government was
formed, the government in unable to trace the report.
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