The Supreme Court
bench hearing the Muzaffarnagar cases issued notice on a writ
petition filed by Mumbai-based Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP),
victim survivors praying for the appointment of a High Powered
Committee of Court Commissioners to survey the four worst affected
districts (Shamli, Baghpat, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar), assess
details of the dead and missing as also the scale of damages and
monitor the transparency and quality of the probe/investigation and
report back to the Supreme Court. Petitioners have also asked for
directions to transfer the investigations to the CBI. The state
government that had filed a status report has been asked to respond
to the allegations by the petitioners that powerful accused are
being dropped as accused and serious offence of rape and gender
violence have not been recorded. The petition has also prayed for
investigations into the overall criminal conspiracy, behind which
majoritarian outfits are involved, which is related to communalizing
the atmosphere prior to the elections using the services of
supremacist outfits especially the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
Individual incidents of conflict have been converted into mass
mobilization by these outfits with hateful anti-minority propaganda
being a ready tool.
The co-petitioners
include two Victim Survivors, Shahid Hassan, son of Sirajuddin who
along with four others was massacred in the attack on Lisadh village
of Shamli district and Samaydeen son of Kamruddin who was also
killed in the violence at Lisadh and the Awami Council for Peace
and Democracy ((WP Nos 170/2013) and are being represented by
advocates Aparna Bhat and Ramesh Pukhrambam.
The detailed prayers
also include directions to the State to register FIRs against the
named powerful accused persons in respect of arson, theft, attempt
to murder and murder and rape and molestation; to constitute a High
Power Committee of Court Commissioners comprising of the
persons/officers, which this HonÂ’ble Court may deem fit and proper,
to visit the affected areas rural as well as urban where people
suffered murder, loot, arson, rape and other criminal acts and have
not been able to lodge F.I.Rs for the offence committed against them
due to fear, threat and intimidation or because they are victim
survivors who are incapacitated and hence require assistance and
access because of any other reason and to assist them to lodge F.I.R.
for the offence committed with them to ensure a thorough
investigation into all the F.I.Rs. which have already been lodged
from 27.8.2013 to date relating to illegal meetings and unlawful
assemblies, targeted loot, arson, circulation of fake photographs
and videos and inciting communal passions by the holding of unlawful
meetings and Panchayats by fixing the responsibility for the
aforesaid offences; as well as identifying the officers,
individuals, representatives, political leaders, organizations and
other persons who instigated the general public by convening a
Panchayat in village Nagla Mataund at Muzaffarnagar on 7.9.2013
where the people were allowed to assemble not only from adjoining
district but also from outside the state armed with dangerous
weapons; to direct effective compensation to all survivors of the
dead and injured and those who have suffered heavy losses.
The petition lists in detail the
chronology of events leading up to the ghastly killings at
Muzaffarnagar that have rendered 41,000 homeless and questions the
state police and administration allowing armed Khap panchayatas,
Mahapanchayats when a communal atmosphere was building up in the
four districts of Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat and Meerut. A list
of 161 worst affected villages from where minorities have had to
flee has also been annexed to the petition.
Trustees:
Nandan Maluste Teesta Setalvad
I.M. Kadri
Cyrus Guzder Javed Akhtar
Alyque Padamsee Anil Dharker
Ghulam Pesh Imam
Rahul Bose Javed Anand
Cedric Prakash