[Reader-list] Gujarat: On line Letter to NHRC re Best Bakery case
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Thu Jul 3 03:48:32 IST 2003
Please sign on and send your own letters/e-mails to the chair of the
National Human Rights Commission. In the last 10 hours of so it seems
the NHRC has swung into action but we should keep the pressure on.
Trial of the murderers of Gujarat. Letter to NHRC re. the Best Bakey Case
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/NHRCbbc/petition.html
Harsh
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[ Full text of the letter below:]
To: The National Human Rights Commission of India
[Please join us in sharing concern about a free investigation into
the Gujarat pogrom followed by a fair trial of the accused. Append
your name to the below letter. On the 21th of July 2003 we will send
this the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC). We would
encourage all to also write and send similar letters which can be
E-mailed / Faxed and snail mailed to the chair of the NHRC. [E-mail:
chairnhrc at nic.in / Fax: (91) + 11-23340016.] We also invite you to
use the telephone [ 91-11-23340891] and speak to the officials of
NHRC to press them to move on the Gujarat Bakery Case.]
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2 July 2003
The Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission
Sardar Patel Bhavan
Sansad Marg
New Delhi - 110001
Dear Sir or Madam,
Your Commission recorded the evidence of several persons in
connection with the violence in Gujarat in 2002. One of these was
Sheikh Zahira Habibullah of Vadodara, later to become the chief
witness in the trial of the Best Bakery case. This witness turned
hostile and denied the testimony which she had given to your
Commission and to several others and which was widely reported. Like
her, many other witnesses in the case turned hostile.
In the judgment pronounced in the Best Bakery case last week, all the
accused were held to be not guilty for want of evidence. Many reports
in the media have clearly said that the prosecution and investigation
in this case did not do their duty on account of sectarian
considerations. It is also widely believed that pressure in some form
was the reason for the surprising number of prosecution witnesses'
turning hostile.
Possibly anticipating just such an eventuality, your Commission had
recommended that several cases, including the Best Bakery case, be
handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The Government of Gujarat did not act on this recommendation.
We urge you to take such action as you see fit to right the wrong
which apparently has been done. The matter is clearly one of human
rights and therefore within your jurisdiction: because the violence
in Gujarat in 2002 was directed against the entire Muslim community
and because that community continues to be the victim of organised
and sustained discrimination and may legitimately fear that its human
rights will be infringed in and through sham trials in the many cases
which remain to be tried.
Yours truly,
Mukul Dube (New Delhi) and Harsh Kapoor (France)
Sincerely,
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