Civil society aghast at Afzal\’s hanging

 

 

To,

 

The Hon’ble President of India

 

Respected Sir,

 

We write to you in deep anguish, despair but in outrage as well. Afzal Guru was hanged on Saturday (9th February 2013) in secrecy. We have been told – after the hanging – that you rejected the mercy petition filed by Guru’s wife Tabassum, on 3rd February. We believe that you made a grave error in rejecting the mercy petition. 

 

If you had perused the trial records and the lengthy documentation put together over the years by lawyers and civil rights activists, or even the Supreme Court judgement which sentenced Afzal to death, you would have known, that his guilt was never established beyond reasonable doubt. The fact that the Court appointed as amicus curiae (friend of the court) a lawyer in whom Afzal had expressed no faith; the fact that he went legally unrepresented from the time of his arrest till his so-called confession, the fact that the court asked him to either accept the lawyer appointed by the Court or cross examine the witness himself should surely have concerned you while considering his mercy petition.

 

His personal history of being a surrendered militant, of harassment and torture at the hands of STF, as well as his statement in open court that he had indeed helped Mohammad, one of the attackers on the Parliament, find a house and obtain a car, the same car used in the attack, but at the orders of his STF handlers, should have spurred a full-scale investigation into the allegations. The citizens of this country do not know if one was ordered at all.

 

It is also a fact that the much-hyped investigation of the Parliament attack case and its prosecution resulted in two full acquittals and conviction of another for concealing knowledge of the crime. It was almost as if there was a need to at least ensure one death sentence so that the faith of the public / society in the efficacy of the prosecution and the judiciary and the Legislature which represented the ‘State” would not be shaken. Surely this was not a case where even the government of the day was convinced of the guilt of Afzal; but treated it like a case that was far too important for all accused to be acquitted.

 

We must remind you sir that the Supreme Court threw out the confessions of both Afzal and Shaukat which obviously indicated that the investigation had been far from fair.

 

As in life, Afzal Guru was denied his legal rights in his death. Sir, every convict whose mercy petition has been rejected by the President, is entitled yet to a last resort. The convict has the constitutional right to file a judicial review or a delay petition, in the High Court and the Supreme Court, to seek commutation of the death sentence. There exists veritable case law to support a condemned convict’s right to appeal on grounds that pendency of death penalty for years causes suffering and torturous anxiety. We only cite the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, which in 1988 held that “Undue long delay in execution of the sentence of death will entitle the condemned person to approach this Court under Article 32”.

 

Under the law, Afzal Guru may have lived still despite your rejection of the mercy petition, had he, his family and lawyers been informed of the rejection of the mercy petition. But perhaps fearing precisely this, the state whose head you are, Sir, chose to execute him in secrecy. The killing was not a fait accompli– a natural culmination of the course of law, as it is being made out to be by the government and the media. In fact, Afzal Guru was cynically, callously and calculatedly denied access to judicial remedy that was due to him. His family was not informed, not only because our state has become unrecognizably cruel—which it has, but also because it did not want Afzal Guru to exercise his legal rights and possibly avert the execution. Informing the wife that her mercy petition had been rejected through speed post is a joke.

 

What the state has done is not simply kill a convict. It has committed a fraud on the people by invalidating an entire description of jurisprudence and a category of rights inhering in our Constitution.

And finally, the Indian state must explain why it displayed such urgency in executing Afzal before those others whose mercy petitions your office has earlier rejected.  

 

1. Manisha Sethi, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association

2. Ahmed Sohaib, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association

3. Sanghamitra Misra, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association

4. Adil Mehdi, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association

5. Ghazi Shahnawaz, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association

6. Ambarien Alqadar, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association

7. Farah Farooqi, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association

8. Tanweer Fazal, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association

9. Yug Mohit Chaudhry, Advocate, Mumbai

10. Vrinda Grover, Advocate, Delhi

11. Kamini Jaiswal, Advocate, Delhi

12. Trideep Pais, Advocate, Delhi

13. Mayur Suresh, Advocate, Delhi

14. Jawahar Raja, Advocate, Delhi

15. Madhumita Dutta, Vettiver Collective, Chennai.

16. Arvind Narrain, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore

17. Lawrence Liang, Alternative Law Forum

18. Siddharth Narrain, Alternative law forum

19. Rakesh Sharma, Filmmaker

20. Ajay Bhardwaj, Filmmaker, Delhi

21. Jesse Knutson, Academic, Delhi

22. Dr. Nandini Chandra, University of Delhi

23. Kaveri Gill, Delhi

24. Gautam Mody, Secretary, New Trade Union Initiative

25. Prof. Ali Javed, University of Delhi

26. Satnam Kaur, Saheli

27. Prof. Alok Rai, Academic, Delhi

28. Dr. M. Vijayabaskar, Faculty, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai.

29. Darryl D’Monte, Mumbai

30. Shivam Vij, Journalist, Delhi

31. Amit Thorat, Delhi

32. Ankur Dutta, Academic, Delhi

33. Ritu Dewan, Delhi

34. Venugopal Maddipati

35. Ruhi Saith

36. Kaushik Bhaumik, Senior Vice President, The Film House,Osian\\\’s

37. Dr. N. Sukumar, Dept of Political Science, Delhi University

38. Dr. Anand Teltumbde, IIT Kharagpur

39. CN Subramaniam

40. Shrimoyee Nandini Ghosh, Lawyer and Legal Researcher, New Delhi

41. Khaliq Parkar, JNU

42. Wilfred D’costa, Indian Social Action Forum – INSAF

43. Mary E John, Academic, Delhi

44. Aamena Ahmad

45. Askok Choudhary, NFFPFW

46. Hany Baby, Univ. of Delhi

47. Jaya Menon, Academic, Aligarh Muslim University

48. Jenny Rowena, Academic, Delhi University

49. Mayanka Dave Mukherji, LSR College, Delhi University

50. Nadim Asrar, Journalist, Delhi

51. Rangnath Singh, Journalist, Delhi

52. Dr. Shadab Bano, Academic, Academic, Aligarh Muslim University

53. Dr. Sk Ehteshamuddin Ahmed, Academic, AMU

54. Dr. Kaushikee, Academic, JMI

55. Ritu Sinha, Academic, Delhi

56. Supriya Chaudhuri

57. Prof. Tripta Wahi, University of Delhi (Retd.)

58. Vijay Singh, Forum for Democratic Struggle, Delhi University.

59. Lesley A Esteves, journalist, Delhi

60. Panini Anand, journalist, Delhi

61. Saba Naqvi, jourmalist, Delhi

62. Prof. Nirmalangshu Mukherjee, Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi

63. Jawed Naqvi, journalist, Delhi

64. Paramita Ghosh, Journalist, Delhi

65. Ram Puniyani, All India Secular forum

66. John Dayal, Delhi

67. Shweta, SRUTI (Society for Rural Urban & Tribal Initiative)

68. Subhash Ghatade, writer and activist, Delhi.

69. Madhuresh, National Alliance for Peoples’ Movements (NAPM)

70. Sukumar Muralidharan, journalist, Delhi

71. Dhruva Narayan, Managing Editor, Daanish Books

72. Ajitha GS, publishing professional, Bangalore

73. G. Arunima Associate Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University

74. K. Saradamoni, Economist, Thiruvananthapuram

75. Prof. Mohan Rao, Jawaharlal Nehru University

76. Sabeena Gadihoke, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

77. Prof. Shohini Ghosh, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

78. Sohail Akbar, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

79. Prof. MS Bhatt, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

80. Dr. Neshat Quaiser, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

81. Sabina Kidwai, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

82. Shamya Dasgupta, journalist/writer, Bangalore

83. Shikha Jhingan, filmmaker, Delhi

84. Prafulla Samantara, Co-convenor, Lok shakti Abhiyan

85. Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, Editor Milli Gazette

86. Nandini Sundar, Professor, Department of Sociology, DU

87. Ashley Tellis, DU

88. Brinda Bose, Associate Prof., Department of English, DU

89. Neeraj Malik, Indraprastha College

90. Javed Malick, Formerly Khalsa College

91. Rahul Govind, Delhi University

92. Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Raks Media Collective, Delhi

93. Prof. Ranjani Mazumdar, Jawaharlal Nehru University

94. Mukul Kesavan, writer and historian

95. Arun Khote

96. Arjumand Ara, Academic, Delhi

97. Rakhi Sehgal, Trade Union activist, Delhi

98. Sreenivas VP

99. Subasri Krishnan, Independent Filmmaker, New Delhi

100. Jairus Banaji, Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

101. Dr. Anirudh Deshpande, Department of History, University of Delhi

102.      Prof. Amit Bhaduri, economist, Delhi.

103.      Prof. Anand Chakravarti, Academic, Delhi

104. Asit Das, activist, Delhi

105. Ravi Sundaram, CSDS

106. Trisha Gupta, writer and editor

107. Peggy Mohan, author, Delhi

108. Satya Sivaraman, activist and filmmaker

109. ViBGYOR Film Collective, Thrissur

110. Saheli, Delhi

111. Anivar Aravind, activist, Bangalore

112. Kavita Krishnan, AIPWA

113. Sanjib Baruah, Professor of Political Studies, Bard College, New York; Honorary Professor, Center for Policy Research, New Delhi.

114.  Chitra Joshi, Department of History, I.P. College, University of Delhi

115. N. A. Jacob, Department of English, Ramjas College, University of Delhi

116. Madhavi Zutshi, Department of English, Khalsa College, University of Delhi

117. Rochelle Pinto, Academic, Delhi University

118. Jonathan Gil Harris, Professor of English, George Washington University, Washington DC

119. Madhavi Menon, Professor, Department of Literature, American University, Washington DC

120. Rohini Hensman, Writer and Activist

121. Tapan Bose, SAFHR, Delhi

122. Pradeep Narayanan, Head, Research and Consultancies at Praxis Institute for Participatory Practices

123. Ravikant, Sarai, Delhi

124. Shivsundar, Journalist, Bangalore

125. Dr. Malem Ningthouja, Campaign for Peace & Democracy Manipur

126. Antara Dev Sen, Little Magazine, Delhi

127. Mariam Shaheen, Journalist, Delhi

128. Gauri Lankesh, Bangalore

129. Ragini Saira, Academic, Amherst

130. Seema Guha- Journalist, New Delhi

131. Rajesh Sinha- Journalist- New Delhi

132. Puneet Nicholas Yadav- Journalist, New Delhi

133. Yadvendra Michael Yadav- Lawyer, Bhopal

134. Sohail Hashmi, Delhi

135. Sabiha hashmi, Art teacher, Bangalore

136. Asad Zaidi, Publisher and writer, Delhi

137. Meera Ahmed, Academic, Delhi

138. Naveen Chander, New Socialist Initiative, Delhi

139. Dr Rina Ramdev, Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University

140. Hemangini Gupta, PhD candidate, Emory University.

141. Nandini Dutta, Academic, Delhi University

142. Nalini Nayak, Academic, Delhi University

143. Dr. Nikita Sud, Academic, University of Oxford

144. Akhil Katyal, Academic, St Stephens college

145. Sumi Krishna, Academic, Bangalore

146. Soumya Dutta, Academic, Delhi University

147. Dr. Saroj Giri, Academic, Delhi University

148. Uma V Chandru, WSS Karnataka

149. Ranjana Padhi, PUDR

150. Geeta Seshu, Journalist, Mumbai

151. Rahul Rao, SOAS

152. Dr. PK Vijayan, Academic, Delhi University

153. Dr. Karen Gabriel, Academic, Delhi University

154. Biswajit Mohanty, Academic, Delhi University

155. Nandita Narain, Delhi University

156. Dunu Roy, Hazard Centre, Delhi

157. Manohar Elavarthi, Praja Rajakiya Vedike, Bangalore

158. Sameer Saran, UNHCR, Kabul

159. Prof. Ayesha Kidwai, Jawaharlal Nehru University

160. Prof. Achin Vanaik, Delhi University

161. Uzair Alim, New Zealand

162. Misha K. Alim, Chennai

163. Kamayani Bala Mahabal, Lawyer, Activist

164. Anita Ghai, Fellow, Teen Murti and Delhi University

165. Kiran Saheen, Activist

166. Rukmani Datta, Activist, Bombay

167. Kaveri Rajaraman Indira, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

168. Dolly Daftary, USA

169. Badal Malick, New York

170. Laxmi Murthy, Journalist, Bangalore

171. Sheba George, Activist

172. Rukmini Sen, Senior Journalist 

173. Pankaj Jha, Delhi University

174. Saumya Bhattacharaya, Delhi University

175. G N Saibaba, Delhi University

176. Roopa Dhawan, Delhi University

177. Tara Basumatary, Delhi University

178. Vijaya Venkataraman, Delhi University

179. Naveen Gaur, Delhi University

180. Abha Dev Habib, Delhi University

181. Prof. Janaki Nair, Academic, Jawaharlal Nehru University

182. Padmaja Shaw, Osmania University 

183. Richa Minocha, Jan Abhiyan Sanstha, Himachal Pradesh

184. Mahtab Alam, writer and activist, Delhi

185. Mansi Sharma, activist, Delhi.

186. V Suresh\\\’s, (General Secretary PUCL) 

187. D Nagasaila\\\’s, PUCL, 

188. Kavita Srivastava, PUCL

189. Arati Chowksi, PUCL

190. Sachin N, Delhi University

191. Debjani Sengupta, Delhi University

192. DW Karuna, Chennai

193. Kumar Sundaram, activist, Delhi

194. Harjeet Singh Gill, Professor Emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University

195. Raji Govind, Coimbatore

196. Anirudddhan Vasudevan, Chennai

197. Mahmood Farooqui, Writer, Delhi

198. A.Suneetha, Senior Fellow, Anveshi, Hyderabad. 

199. Saumya Uma, Consultant, Law, gender and Human Rights, Mumbai

200. Anusha Rizvi, Filmmaker, Delhi

201. Rajashri Dasgupta, Journalist, Kolkata

202. Prof. Ujjwal Kumar Singh, Academic, Delhi University