Uploaded on July  02, 2007

In a recent court judgment several Muslim "terrorists" have been awarded long sentences, including life-term, for being involved in Gujarat BJP leader Haren Pandya’s murder.

Interestingly, people close to Pandya (including his family) have from the beginning pointed fingers at top government leaders in Gujarat for their involvement in the heinous crime.

By now it is an established pattern that the government of Narendra Modi arrests innocent Muslims, and even kills them, and then announces that they were LeT or Jaish terrorists.

Despite universal condemnation the government is not repentant. In the state-sponsored murders police officers like DG Vanzara have been used frequently.

After the judgment sentencing Muslims for Pandya’s murder, his wife publicly said that she did not believe that the murderers of her husband were Muslims.

Pandya was a cabinet minister in Modi’s government. He did not see eye to eye with Modi. He was murdered soon after taking a public stance at variance with Modi’s.

At the time of the murder Pandya’s people accused Modi of involvement in the murder. Pandya’s wife has also accused Vanzara of involvement in the case.

The accusation against Vanzara makes some sense as he has been alleged to be doing all this for years. He is cooling his heels in jail on charges of extrajudicial killing.

Even the allegation of murder against Modi sounds credible keeping in view his role in the anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002. His request for visa to US was rejected on such suspicions.

About 2,000 Muslims died, many more got injured, Muslim property worth hundreds of crores of rupees was destroyed and more than a lakh people were rendered homeless in the pogrom planned meticulously by the Sangh.

Mrs. Pandya has said her family is trying to get the government’s permission for retrial. In the vitiated atmosphere of Gujarat it is not always possible to get impartial police reports on the basis of which a court can try a case properly.

Under the Supreme Court’s orders the Best Bakery case was transferred outside Gujarat. With an entire government bent on falsification, fair trial in Gujarat is very difficult today. Mrs. Pandya’s plea for retrial must be accepted in the interest of justice.

Dr. Mohammad Manzoor Alam