Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Maulana Mahmood Madani, President Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, has called the decision of the local court as disappointing in the case of the ghastly killings in a village in the Meerut district on May 23, 1987. He said that this is not only ‘ delayed justice’ but also the worst example of ‘justice denied’.
According to Times of India, more than three decades — and 900 hearings — after the massacre in which 72 people, all Muslims, were killed at Malyana on the outskirts of Meerut, a local court has let off all the 39 accused for “want of evidence.”
On Sunday, Jamiat said this should be recalled that one of the most shameful chapters of human callousness and the most significant event of custodial killings in independent India was enacted in Hashimpura on Mary 22, 1987 when Hashimpura was surrounded by the PAC and the Army. The PAC then forced all residents out of their houses to the main road. Then a house-to-house search was conducted. Army personnel segregated men over 50 years of age as well as those under 12 to one side of the road and dumped and killed them point blank.
The next day, the Maliyana massacre took place, where 72 Muslims were allegedly killed under the command of 44th PAC battalion commandant RD Tripathi. An FIR was registered in the murder case, but there was no mention of PAC. Now justice was not delivered due to the shoddy investigation by the state agencies and the preparation of a flawed charge sheet by the prosecution, said the Muslim group.
Maulana Madani said that this is a manifestation of the failure of the state prosecution. It is not comprehensible that such a large number of people were killed and the killer was not identified even after 35 years. Such examples show the inadequacies of the country’s investigative agencies and the slowness of the judicial system, when many backlogs of justice-seekers end up waiting for justice and murderers complete their entire lives with freedom. Maulana Madani said that it always gives encouragement to rioters and murderers and widens the scope of their evil tricks.
Maulana Madani said that the present government must appeal against this decision in the High Court and try its best to remove the deficiencies in the prosecution of the case, as well as to take action against those police and prosecution officers for their Negligence and incompetence.
