Campaign of calumny
The People’s Union for Civil
Liberties denounces the Gujarat government’s persecution of
whistle-blowers
January 1,
2011: People’s Union for Civil Liberties strongly condemns the Gujarat
government’s campaign of calumny against and attempt to frame
under false charges human rights defender Teesta Setalvad of Citizens
for Justice and Peace, lawyer MM Tirmizi, victim survivors of the
Lunawada massacre and media person Rahul Singh for exposing the
Gujarat police’s callousness and cruelty in the Lunawada massacre and
mass burial case.
Teesta Setalvad, her organisation, CJP, and
lawyer, Tirmizi, with the help of the kin of the victims were
instrumental in getting the high court orders in 2006 and then Supreme
Court orders in 2008 for a dignified burial of the massacre victims’
mortal remains. These were the victims of the 2002 genocide in
Gujarat. It is well known that the Gujarat police had callously dumped
the bodies near the Paanam river at Lunawada in Godhra district of
Gujarat.
The national outcry following media reports on the
efforts of Citizens for Justice and Peace and the court judgements
forced the Gujarat government to ultimately hand over the bodies for a
decent burial. Following the rejection by the Gujarat high court of
the victim survivors’ petition for a CBI investigation into the
tampering of evidence in the Lunawada case, the Gujarat government saw
an opportunity to persecute whistle-blowers and human rights
defenders.
As Rais Khan, the local CJP representative,
dismissed from the organisation for irregularities, switched sides
under the influence of the accused and the police in the Lunawada
case, the Gujarat government has increased its efforts to teach Teesta
and other co-activists, lawyers and journalists a lesson. Thus they
have issued summons to the Headlines Today correspondent, Rahul Singh,
who, as Sahara TV correspondent, had publicised the Gujarat
government’s misdeeds. PUCL fears that, emboldened by Dr Sen’s
conviction under trumped up charges in Chhattisgarh, the Gujarat
government will make a swift move to arrest Teesta and other human
rights defenders, lawyers, media persons and others under trumped up
charges of doctoring evidence in the Lunawada case. We see this as the
Gujarat government’s ploy to influence the courts before its imminent
judgement in the Lunawada massacre case.
The PUCL has decided
to lodge a complaint with the NHRC against this persecution.
Mahi Pal Singh, Kavita Srivastava National Secretaries, PUCL n
(People’s Union for Civil Liberties, founded in 1976, is India’s
oldest and largest human rights organisation; website: www.pucl.org.)
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