The State government is planning to appoint a retired judge of the Karnataka High Court to look into cases of Muslim youth who are in jail on charges of terrorism, according to Home Minister K.J. George.
He said he had already held three meetings with senior officials on the issue.
While the Congress in its manifesto ahead of Assembly polls had promised to set up a State-level committee to look into cases of detention of Muslim youth under terror charges, the issue is once again in the limelight after Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde wrote to the State governments to set up fast-track courts for speedy trial of terrorism cases against Muslim youth.
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According to police sources, 226 suspects (mostly belonging to the Muslim community) have been booked under terror charges in the State since 2000. While 83 of them are out on bail, more than 15 have been taken by police of other States.
Irshad Ahmed Desai, convener, Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), which is fighting such cases, said that many Muslim youth were in jail on some flimsy ground or the other. “Many of the accused are aged between 18 and 25 and lodged in jails in Karnataka, Pune, Gujarat and Rajasthan, which include doctors and engineers. Most of them are from Hubli, Gulbarga, Bhatkal and Bijapur,” he said.
However, according to Additional Chief Secretary (Home) S.K. Pattanayak, there are no complaints from any member of the minority community of harassment or victimisation by the police, such as filing false cases against them in the State. However, the official said that he would revisit the issue once the Chief Minister receives the Centre’s letter and will initiate all the modalities/guidelines to ensure that no innocent Muslim youth is harassed by the police.
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