Owaisi demands Mecca Masjid blast case retrial

Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday demanded that the Centre order a retrial of the Mecca Masjid blast case or appeal against the verdict of the NIA special court and release the Bhaskar Rao Commission report.

The member of Parliament from Hyderabad was speaking at a public meeting in Saidabad days after the verdict. “Tomorrow, which is Friday, at 4 p.m., we will meet the Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and we will place before him these facts and demand that Centre order a retrial or appeal against the case in the Supreme Court,” he said.

Mr. Owaisi said that he had asked Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao communicate the same demand to the Centre. He said Section 173 sub-section 8 of the CRPC provides for this.

Describing the NIA as a ‘deaf and dumb caged parrot’, he said that it had appointed an inexperienced lawyer as the prosecution. “The lawyer was inexperienced. He should have had 10 years of experience in dealing with serious cases,” he said.

He accused the NIA of toeing the line of its ‘political masters’ and alleged that the aim was to get the accused acquitted.

Referring to the ‘attitude’ of the Bharatiya Janata Party, he sought to know whether it would stand in solidarity with the victims of the blast or choose to remain silent.

Criticising the Prime Minister’s ‘silence’ on the verdict, Mr. Owaisi said: “Will you not stand with the victims? Will you not stand against those who took lives?” He also pointed out that no BJP minister has released an official statement.

Comparing the trial of the Dilsukhanagar blast with the Mecca Masjid’s, Mr. Owaisi said that an IPS officer was available at hearings of the former while this was not seen in the latter. He also said that arrangements were made in Cherlapalli jail where Dilsukhnagar blast accused were lodged. Similar arrangements were not taken during the Mecca Masjid trial, he said.