Punish policemen who jailed innocent Muslims: CPI-M

New Delhi, Feb 23 (IANS) The CPI-M has sought action against Delhi Police officers responsible for jailing two young Muslims for 12 long years after a terror attack here in 2005 killed 67 people.

"The guilty police officials in this case must be charged and prosecuted," an editorial in the party journal "People's Democracy" said.

"The State must provide adequate compensation and take steps for the rehabilitation of the two men who have been so unjustly treated," said the Communist Party of India-Marxist.

It said "the sordid and shocking record of the targeting and prosecution of Muslim youth in terror related cases has once again been highlighted by the Delhi High Court's acquittal of all three accused in the 2005 serial blasts in Delhi".

Mohammad Hussain Fazli and Mohd Rafiq Shah were acquitted of all charges while Tariq Ahmed Dar was also found to have no role in the blasts but he was convicted for being a member of a terrorist organisation.

"It has taken 12 long years for Fazli and Rafiq Shah to gain freedom, years in which they suffered police torture and prolonged incarceration," said the editorial.

"Behind this miscarriage of justice lies a trail of brutal police torture, concocted evidence and suppression of facts which establish the innocence of the accused."

The CPI-M said the court judgement was an indictment of the Delhi Police Special Cell which fabricated the case.

It said judicial verdicts have shown how there was a pattern of rounding up innocent Muslim youths and charging them whenever a terrorist blast took place.

The CPI-M called for compensation and rehabilitation for innocent persons implicated in such cases, special courts with time-bound procedures to settle cases within a year, and action against those who cook up evidence.

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