‘Rafique a victim of fabricated evidence’

Rebecca John, the laywer for the accused says relief is ‘too little too late’

Rebecca John, the lawyer who represented Mohammad Rafique Shah, who was acquitted on Thursday, said that the verdict was a big relief for the accused, but was “too little too late”.

“When lives are lost in a terror attack you do disservice to the victims by fabricating evidence and falsely implicating innocent people,” Ms. John’s Facebook post read.

The post went on to say, “...Who will compensate this man for the 12 years he has spent in custody for a crime he never committed ?”

Ms. John told

The Hindu that Mr. Rafique was a victim of fabricated evidence.

‘Dragging the case’

“The vice-chancellor of the university where he was studying has testified in a letter that he was in class when the blasts happened. But that letter was not even produced before court. He was in fact picked up and kept in a torture camp and the three of them were victimised,” the lawyer said.

Ms. John said that the prosecution has been dragging the case for 12 years, without being able to produce any solid evidence against the three accused. Their next move will now be to move court for a compensation for the number of years lost.

“He was a boy in his twenties when he was picked up. He had his entire life ahead of him. Who will bring those years back. I remember when I took this case in 2005, his mother had come to me and asked me to just look at all the evidence and then decide if her son was involved in terrorist activities,” Ms. John said.

The cases of the other two accused were also fought by eminent lawyers. The case for Tariq Ahmad Dar was fought by Satish Tamta, and Mohammed Hussain Fazili was represented by Sushil Bajaj.

‘Weak evidence’

“The evidence presented has been weak. The investigations have been superficial. I agree that many people have lost their lives but that should not be a reason to falsely implicate innocent people,” Mr. Bajaj said.