Various Muslim organisations condemned repeated threats to Adv. Mahmood Paracha and demanded immediate action. They were addressing the issue at a press conference held under the banner of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat in the national capital on March 21.
Adv. Mahmood Paracha, Supreme Court of India, who is fighting around 70 terror related cases from all across India, has been threatened by members of the mafia gang led by Ravi Pujari. Paracha has been threatened by using mobile phone calls and SMSes. The threats started when Adv. Paracha said recently in a press statement that police officers who fabricated cases against youth should be tried and sent to jails.
Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, president, All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, while addressing the press meet, said that Mr Mahmood Paracha has found some serious technical loopholes in all terror cases which he has taken up and it is almost certain that on the basis of these loopholes all the terror accused will get released in due course of time. Soon after Adv. Paracha raised the issue and demanded punishment for all those involved and believed to have fabricated these terror cases, he has received repeated threats believed to have been abetted by those investigating officials handling terror cases. He expressed grave concern that despite such threats the government has turned a blind eye. He expressed utter surprise that so far neither Mahmood Paracha has got any security nor has any action been taken by the government against those who have threatened him.
Mohammad Salim Engineer, National Secretary Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, said that everyone has to abide by the law and those who take the law in their hands must be afraid of the law of the land. There is need to create an atmosphere where all those who violate the law must be afraid of punishment. There is a double standard while dealing with the law; if the same threat had been given to any high profile leader, the response and the action would have been entirely different. If this continues unabated then the very foundation of the country will become weak and ineffective.
Muslim leaders present at the press meet were also of the view that these threats are indeed very serious because earlier criminals at the behest of rogue security agencies have already killed two advocates – Adv. Shahid Azmi and Adv. Akbar Patel – and assaulted over a dozen advocates who used to defend such terror accused across India. Mr Mujtaba Farooq, President Welfare Party of India, while talking to media persons, said that it is a well-known fact and has been repeatedly reported in the media about the nexus between police and criminals. That investigating agencies are biased is very dangerous and must be condemned in strongest possible words.
Akhlaq Ahmed, Secretary Association for Protection of Civil Rights, said that it has become the habit of investigating agencies to weaken the support or the defence system of the accused so that terror cases can be fabricated in their manner. Akhlaq also said the police so far have not been able to harm the defence system in terror cases handled by Mahmood Paracha and these threats are aimed to terrorise him either to follow the police version or not to take these cases to their logical end.
Maulana Ataur Rahman Qasmi, Chairman Shah Waliullah Institute, said that even during the British rule the accused were free to get lawyers of their choice; such kind of threats or intimidations were rare.
“The Muslim community will hold the Union and Maharashtra State Home Ministers and the Mumbai Police Commissioner personally responsible if anything untoward happened to the brave advocate who is fighting to uphold the rule of the law and defend the spirit of the Constitution,” said the statement released by the Muslim leaders.
The Indian American Muslim Council, an advocacy group dedicated to safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant ethos, in a statement on March 21, also condemned the threats to senior lawyer Mr. Mehmood Paracha by vested interests operating through underworld goons. IAMC has demanded the state administration nab the culprits and take immediate measures for the safety and security of the senior lawyer. Advocate Paracha is representing German Bakery bomb blast case convict Mirza Himayat Baig.
Mr. Paracha reported he is getting threatening messages from the underworld don Ravi Pujari since his recent interview appeared on the TCN site. In the exclusive interview to online news portal TwoCircles.Net (TCN – www.twocircles.net) Adv. Paracha, had courted controversy by demanding that that the current Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria be “arrested as a terrorist” and tried under anti-terror laws.
The IAMC statement cited senior lawyer saying in the interview, “The fact remains that three investigating agencies (NIA, Delhi Police’ Special Cell and Central Crime Branch, Bangalore), my own understanding of the case, the charge sheet and the subsequent events, all point to one fact that the Maharashtra ATS led by Mr. Rakesh Maria was responsible in not only falsely implicating Himayat Baig, but also in the process actively saving the real terrorists,” adding, “the police officers involved, including Mr Rakesh Maria should be arrested for conducting activities which are terror related. He has committed offence prima facie which are terror cases and he should be arrested as a terrorist.”
Mr. Paracha’s case is following the same pattern as the case of late Advocate Shahid Azmi, who was killed in broad daylight in his office by vested interests inimical to the rule of law. “The fact that there are threats to the life of the senior advocate demonstrates how the rule of law is disregarded with impunity when those struggling for justice start to take on the mighty and powerful,” said Mr. Ahsan Khan, President of IAMC.
IAMC also condemned the Mumbai police department’s attempt to intimidate the online news portal TCN by demanding the removal of Mr. Paracha’s interview wherein he made the bold and stunning revelation about the dubious role of Police Commissioner and former Maharashtra ATS chief Rakesh Maria in terror related cases. “The Mumbai Police’s demand that the online portal withdraw the interview with Mr. Paracha is an unacceptable attack on the freedom of the press. It strikes at the very roots of our existence as a democracy where the state security apparatus is supposed to operate under the law and help uphold it,” added Mr. Khan.
IAMC, the largest advocacy organisation of Indian Muslims in the United States with 15 chapters across the nation, has called on the media, civil society institutions, legal fraternity and people of conscience, to strongly resist attempts by the Mumbai Police to infringe on the due process of law and on the freedom of media institutions.