Owaisi seeks retrial, blames NIA for weakening case

All the major Muslim organisations in Hyderabad have demanded that the Mecca Masjid blast case should be either re-tried or the verdict of the NIA special court should be challenged in the High Court.

A delegation of Muslim leaders led by the Hyderabd MP and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen(AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi met the State Governor ESL Narasimhan on Thursday and demanded a retrial. A memorandum presented by the delegation to the Governor highlighted various acts of omission and commission by the investigative agency NIA leading to the weakening of the case and acquittal of the five accused belonging to the Hindu right wing groups.

“We requested the Governor to not only convey our sense of despair and sadness to the Centre but also requested to appeal for a retrial or appeal in the higher courts of law against this verdict that let the terrorists go free”, Owaisi told the media after meeting the Governor at Raj Bhavan this afternoon.

Earlier several Muslim organisations also held a massive protest meeting in the city last evening, which was addressed by the prominent city Muslim leaders and representatives of various organisations.

Addressing the mammoth gathering Asaduddin Owaisi said the blast case should be reheard under the sections 173, sub section 8 of Criminal Procedure Code(CrPC). “If the survivors of any of the victims of the blast were willing to fight a legal battle, AIMIM and other Muslim organisations will extend them the assistance”, he said. Owaisi was of the view that if the families of the survivors become the party in the case it will have a positive impact.

He made it clear that the protest was not against the judiciary but against the negligence and the bias shows by the NIA during the trial.

9 people were killed and 58 others were injured in the bomb blast during the Friday congregation in the historic mosque of Hyderabad on May 18, 2007.

“NIA weakened the case in an organised manner at the behest of the political masters”, he said.

Contrasting the attitude of NIA in Mecca Masjid case with the Dilsukhnagar bomb blast case in which a special court was set up at Charalapally jail to try Yaseen Bhatkal and other two accused. “During the trial a senior IPS officer used to be present. This serious interest of the investigative agency and the prosecution resulted in the accused getting convicted and the court gave them death penalty”, he said.

He recalled that when two accused of Mecca Masjid blast case were granted bail on March 12, 2014, he had personally contacted the then Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and asked him to challenge the bail, the Congress Government did nothing. After Narendra Modi Government came to power when the trial began in June 2014, NIA changed the lawyer and appointed a person who had not even fought one murder case in his life. More than 60 witnesses turned hostile and material evidence was vanished. He said an unexploded bomb was found wrapped in red shirt in the mosque but during the trial the shirt, which was vital evidence vanished.

“The case was deliberately weakened to save the saffron clad accused”, he said. Owaisi alleged that not only Mecca Masjid but the Government was trying to save the accused in all other such cases like Malegaon and Smajhauta expresse blasts. “This if the first Government which instead of supporting the victims of terrorist attacks was standing with accused”, he said demanding to know the position of the Government.

The other speakers at the meet included Hamid Mohammed Khan of Jamat-e-Islami Hind, Ziauddin Nayyar of Tameer-e-Millat, Moulana Jafar Pasha, Moulana Qabool Pasha Shuttari and Moulana Safi Ahmad Madani.