December
17, 2011
The CJP, Mumbai welcomes the decision of
the Sessions Court, Mehsana
Press
Statement
The Citizens for Justice and Peace,
Mumbai welcomes the decision of the Sessions Court, Mehsana
directing the District and Sessions Court Mehsana to register a
complaint in writing and launch the prosecution of Rais Khan Pathan
under Sections 177 and 182 of the Indian Penal Code. The offence
under Section 177 is for furnishing false information and Section
182 is for furnishing false information with an intent to cause the
public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another
person. The Order dated November 9, 2011 pronounced orally at the
time of the verdict awarding convictions to 31 persons was made
available today. We attach a copy of the Order.
On December 20, 2010, Justice
Srivastava had issued notice to the former employee of CJP after he
had, under the guise of bringing truth to light was in fact,
committing perjury, by furnishing false information before the Court
and misleading the process of justice underway with a view to
obstructing the trial.
Khan had gone forum hopping since
September 2010 making vile and unsubstantiated allegations before
the SIT, four different Sessions Courts hearing the post Godhra
trials and even before the Nanavati-Shah Commission of Inquiry. A
Delhi based newspaper, the Pioneer, edited by a Member of
Parliament belonging to the same political party that rules Gujarat
had –without seeking any clarifications from us – published the
defamatory stories with a view to influence the public atmosphere,
at a time when the Zakia Ahsan Jafri and CJP case against chief
minister Narendra Modi and 61 powerful accused was being heard in
the Supreme Court.
The CJP has been maintaining that the
systematic and well planned campaign malicious campaign against the
organisation and its Secretary Teesta Setalvad, using a former
employee and some a handful of witnesses has been unleashed by a
vindictive Gujarat government targeting a group that has
consistently stood for justice to the victims of the genocidal
carnage of Gujarat in 2002. This is not the first time that this has
happened. In 2004 too during the course of the retrial of the Best
Bakery case similar allegations had been made. CJP Secretary applied
to the Supreme Court to get the allegations examined and following a
full fledged inquiry, CJP and its Secretary were exonerated
(Registrar General Supreme Court of India, BM Gupta Report, August
2005).
Since 2003, while allegations have
remained the same, persons making them have changed. CJP believes
that behind these blatant attempts are the cynical resources of
Gujarat state functionaries accused of criminal conspiracy to commit
mass murder, destruction of evidence and subverting the justice
process. Khan had been discontinued from service in January 2008 and
public advertisements conveying this published in Gujarati
newspapers issued and published. For eighteen months, while the
trials were underway he was silent, getting activated only after
September 201 when the Zakia Ahsan Jafri and CJP case reached its
climax in the apex court. We believe that the malicious attempts are
being supported by these vested interests and accused.
While welcoming the order of the
Sessions Court, Mehsana we appeal to the media to ensure that in the
interests of public justice, repeated and blatantly manipulative
attempts to defame sincere efforts to provide legal aid and
counseling to victim survivors, are understood for what they are.
Trustees:
IM Kadri (President), Nandan Maluste
(Vice President), Teesta Setalvad (Secretary), Alyque Padamsee,
Cyrus Guzder, Anil Dharker, Rahul Bose, Arvind Krishnaswamy, Javed
Anand, Javed Akhtar, Ghulam Pesh Imam, Cedric Prakash
