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New Delhi:
Over a dozen NGOs and activists in a joint statement issued Friday extended
their support to the call given by Press Council of India (PCI)
chief Justice Markandu Katju to reinstate DRDO scientists Aijaz
Ahmed Mirza after his release on bail in the Bangalore module
terror case.
Welcoming what they called as a bold
initiative by by Justice Katju, they said, "Arrested in August 2012, on charges that he was
involved in a terrorist conspiracy, Mirza has been released after
the NIA has excluded him from the chargesheet."
"But, in these six
months of his arrest and incarceration, he was not only vilified
as a ‘mastermind’ but his Junior Research Fellowship was also
terminated by the DRDO. We fail to understand why the DRDO was in
such a haste to terminate his hard won fellowship even before the
charges were framed. Termination of the fellowship must have only
compounded Mirza’s distress and mental trauma", they said.
The statement has been jointly
signed by
Satya Sivaraman (writer and filmmaker),
Shabnam Hashmi (ANHAD),
Mahtab Alam (PUCL),
Manisha Sethi, Ahmed Sohaib, Sanghamitra Misra (JTSA),
Mansi Sharma (activist, Delhi)
Ajit Sahi, senior journalist, Delhi,
Teesta Setalvad (CPJ),
Jyoti Punwani, journalist, Mumbai,
Lesley E. Esteves, journalist, Delhi,
Jerry Pinto, writer, Mumbai,
Dr. Neshat Quaiser, JMI,
Dunu Roy (Hazard Centre),
Prof. Harbans Mukhia (Retd.), JNU,
Xavier Dias, activist, Ranchi,
Walliullah Laskar, Activist, Guwahati,
Saba Naqvi, senior journalist, Delhi,
Vidya Bhushan, Rawat, Activist and writer, Delhi,
Anuradha Bhasin, senior journalist, Jammu
Kumar Sundaram, Researcher-Activist, New Delhi
"Compared to the swiftness with which the DRDO acted against Mirza,
we learn from media reports that Lt. Col. Prasad Srikant Purohit,
arrested and charged in connection with terrorist actions in the
Malegaon bomb blast and other cases has been receiving full salary
and benefits", they said.
In reply to an RTI enquiry, the Ministry of
Defence has stated clearly that it was confirmed that Lt. Col. Purohit, IC 55224 is in receipt of full rates of P&A till date.
It
is further stated that official communication regarding the
judiciary matters is required to be received in this office from AHQRS. For further action relating to P&A.
In this present case no such
intimation has been received till date, according to the
information received under RTI.
"It is unbelievable that an officer
who is in prison for the last four years, on charges of terrorism;
against whom a court of inquiry had recommended dismissal from the
Army at the earliest by withdrawal of the ‘President’s pleasure’
(Indian Express, May 05, 2010); against whom a fresh Court of
Inquiry was ordered in 2011, continues to receive full salary",
the activists said in the joint statement.
"Are we not to draw the conclusion that the Ministry of Defence
acted in a malicious and discriminatory manner by dismissing Ahmed Mirza for merely being interrogated on suspicion of terrorism
while wilfuly neglecting to take any punitive action in the case
of Col. Purohit, against whom several charges of terrorism have
been already initiated?", the observed.
"We second Justice Katju’s demand that the
Ministry of Defence reinstate Mirza with retrospective effect and
in fact offer compensation to him for the unjust harassment he has
undergone both from the NIA as well as the DRDO", they said.
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