Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Re: [prpoint] SC Judgement on Afzal Guru - A legal analysis

 

srinivasan,


brilliant piece. yes, members in this forum will agree with you that TERRORISTS have no place in civilised society and right thinking people with cherished values in life. I recall what mr h v r iyengar , once RBI governor, said " Terrorism has to be met with counter terrorism." while this might not be practical in a democratic set up, but it seems time has come for such a thing.

hope all of you have seen the film SWORDFISH, where John Travolta an ex CIA operative starts a counter terrorist organisation and finishes them all , but using terrorist methods against them , but with some collateral damage to innocent citizens. thought provoking film.

at the same time, i think all due processes of law need to be concluded within the legal framework to ensure that tomorrow an innocent man does not go to the gallows. that is where justice has to be meted out very carefully. thats why judges give the death sentence in the rarest of cases.

i dont know how many of you read the FRONTLINE article by J Venkatesh, Hindu correspondent covering legal affairs in Delhi. A very simple statement was taken by him to illustrate how govt ought to be careful about its statements and the way it dispenses justice. He did not question the hanging of Kasab. But endorsed it. But he raised a legal point.

Heres how it goes. The Home Minister says government had taken a decision to hang Kasab about three weeks before the actual event and had undertaken all preparations to carry out in secret. At the same time the chronbology of dates given by shinde show that the President had not rejected the mercy petition of Kasab as yet when governemnt decided to hang him. 

The legal point raised by Venkatesh is :
1) how can government take a decision to hang somebody ( terrorist or no terrorist) before the presidential rejection.
2) while it does not matter much in the case of kasab because govt is sure president will give assent to his hanging by rejecting his clemency, there is a stray chance that this precedence could be used against political opponents who could be innocent and could be framed by autocratic governments framing fabricated charges.
3) i think this is a valid point to protect innocents.

just thought i would bring this to members attention.

again , government despatches to the family government's decision about rejection of clemency and it reaches after the hanging. afsal guru is a TERRORIST but his family is not. The family must have disapproved his methods and yet had some relationship stored somewhere in their hearts because hes related to them -- his parents. no parent would condone a terrorist but certainly every parent would like to his offspring once befoe he is sent to the gallows, ONE LAST TIME. this is permitted under the law.

maybe this is what Human Rights activists ought to be saying instead of defending a confirmed terrorist where more than circumstansial evidence pointed to his involvement.
Human rights activists should also read and view his fissiparous and venomous statements that he made against the union of india despite the unforgiveable crimes he committed against the unity and integrity of india. Afsal Guru deserved to be hanged to send out a STRONG MESSAGE from the government that No Democratically elected govt would stand an ASSAULT on its soverignty and the punishment is the ULTIMATED dreaded one,  DEATH. Spies are put to death immediately. So should terrorists be. But India demonstrates to the world that it puts to death a person only after all due process of law have been taken recourse to and an accused has been given enough opportunities to defend his INNOCENCE if any. Its India's strength and weakness which will make every country respect India as a democratic country and not a BANANA REPUBLIC or Fundamentalist state.

President Pranab Mukherjee is doing well as President.

Cheers
ashok

On 13 February 2013 12:01, Prime Point Srinivasan <prpoint@gmail.com> wrote:
 

Hanging of Afzal Guru

On 9th February morning, Afzal Guru, the mastermind behind the 2001 Parliament attack was hanged in secrecy after the rejection of his mercy petition by President of India.   Now some of the media and the Human Rights Activists have started glorifying the terrorist Afzal Guru and are spreading views against the hanging of Afzal Guru.

Objections raised by Human Right activists

They raise three points.  (1) Afzal Guru was not given proper legal support to defend himself; (2) the Supreme Court and other judgements were based on the 'circumstantial evidence', as he was not directly involved in the attack on Parliament' and (3) the judgements were based on 'collective conscience' and not as per law.

Process of law in India

This case has gone through Trial Court, High Court and then finally Supreme Court, before the review by President of India.  Such capital punishments are awarded in the rarest of rare cases, with due care and application of mind.  Three eminent Senior Advocates Mr Ram Jethmalani, Mr Shanti Bhushan and Mr Sushil Kumar have appeared in the Supreme Court on behalf of the accused.   The Supreme Court Judgement may be downloaded from this link.


Glorification of terrorists by a section of media and activists

It is sad that the terrorists who challenged the sovereignty of the nation by attacking the Indian Parliament are glorified and defended by Indian Human Rights activists and some of the popular TV and Print media.    We can understand the anger of Terrorist groups in Pakistan against the hanging of Afzal Guru.  But, a patriotic Indian is not able to digest the arguments of these Human Right activists.  They never raised their voice when these terrorists killed hundreds of innocent citizens at Coimbatore, Mumbai, Delhi and other places. They never talk about the 20 Security officials, who died along with Rajiv Gandhi 60 innocent persons who were killed in Coimbatore blast in 1998 (14th Feb 1998).

Terrorists do not deserve any sympathy

When the terrorists themselves do not believe in human rights and human values, why should they be given all respects as a human being.  The secret hanging of Kasab and Afzal Guru are being criticized by these activists.  These terrorists are the enemies of humanity and they do not deserve any sympathy.  It may be recalled that US killed Osama Bin Laden and threw his body in the mid sea. 

Exclusive interview with Mr Sethuraman on the SC Judgement

With this background, we conducted a telephonic interview with Mr S Sethuraman, one of the senior most  lawyers of Madras High Court on the various issues raised by these activists about Supreme Court Judgement.

In this interview, Mr Sethuraman explains clearly how the Supreme Court has gone into the various aspects of law and finally awarded the death penalty on Afzal Guru.  He explains that Afzal Guru was the mastermind and the conspirator of this attack.  According to the principle law of justice, conspiracy cannot be proved beyond doubt and it can be established only through various circumstantial evidences and links, since 'conspiracy' is hatched in 'darkness' without any eye witness or evidence.  He says that the Supreme Court has analysed this case in depth and examined all the aspects, before confirming the death sentence.

Further, Human Rights Activists demand the abolition of capital punishment, even for convicts under terrorism.  Mr Sethuraman argues that murder committed for gain and the terrorism acts are totally different and they have to be dealt with separately.  In the murders for gain, only few people are affected.  In the case of terrorism acts, besides large number of deaths, the economy, relationships in the society are strained.  These terrorism acts are to be considered as a 'war against the sovereignty of the nation' and has to be dealth with severely under law.

Please listen to the interesting and informative interview with Mr S Sethuraman.  (12 minutes).  This interview is available in the Youtube link.  Please listen.


Srinivasan




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