Volume 6, No. 3, March 2005

 

Condemn Brutal Attack on Prof. Geelani

 

What Democracy is this? In the very heart of Delhi’s plush colony, Vasant Kunj, at 9.00 pm on Feb.7th Professor S.A.R.Geelani is shot four times, from close range and the killers escape, supposedly without a trace. All suspect the hand of the Delhi police in the attempted murder, who claim they only heard of the incident from the press.

Geelani had just got out of his car near the flat of his lawyer, Nandita Haksar, who he was visiting in connection with his case. After being shot he managed to reach Haksar’s house who rushed Geelani to AIIMS hospital. He was unconscious and was operated on as his intestine had been ruptured at ten places. The police threw an armed cordon around Geelani and did not even allow his wife to see him that night, until the press intervened.

Geelani had been sentenced to death by the trial court in the Dec.13th 2001 Parliament attack case. After 23 months of incarceration and torture in jail and the police station he was finally acquitted by the Delhi High Court. But the Delhi police will not sit quiet; they have challenged the acquittal in the Supreme Court. Also they have been systematically harassing him — threatening calls, systematic trailing, abuse by hoodlums while traveling to college, had all become part of the daily life of Prof Geelani.

His wife said, with tears in her eyes and the young 9-years old son by her side, that "While this is the first time that threats have taken such an ugly turn, we have been complaining about the bullying and the fear that we have been living under. In fact while we haven’t made any formal complaint till now, when my husband went to Goa last year he was followed and then we made a formal protest, but nothing came out of the complaint. The threats continued and today we are here." Geelani’s counsel, Ram Jethmalani, said his client had expressed apprehensions about the threat to his life from the Delhi Police as far back as March 2004. Arundhati Roy, Nandita Haksar and a large number of human rights activists have accused the Delhi police of masterminding the attack, and have demanded a judicial enquiry into the incident. Some claimed that "the police have been trailing him ever since his acquittal. They were there after him all the time, but they were not there when the incident happened." Even while he was in jail numerous attacks had been made on his life — with blades, knives and even poisoning — by hoodlums instigated by the police.

On the very next day of the attack, hundreds gathered outside the Delhi Police Headquarters and submitted a memorandum to the Home Minister and the Prime Minister. Those present were social activists, human rights and civil liberties activists, and large numbers of teachers and students. Some of the organisations represented were, PUDR, PUCL, DUTA, a large number of renowned intellectuals, and teachers and students from JNU, Delhi University and Jamia Milia Islamia. They shouted anti-police slogans, putting the direct blame on the police. The memorandum submitted demanded an independent judicial inquiry into the attack. It also demanded a White Paper on the Parliam-entary attack case and the institution of a high-level judicial inquiry into the illegal practices of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell. DUTA (Delhi University Teachers’ Association), at its General Body Meeting on Feb.11th called for a "University Bandh" on Feb.12th against the murderous attack on Prof. Geelani.

Today, as the country slips deeper and deeper into the arms of the imperialists, particularly the US, the country is being turned into a hell hole where no one is safe from the mafia state. To prop up its carpetbagger economic loot, crimilalisation is there in all spheres of the establishment — business, politics and the state machinery. Safety can only be secured through a counter force that takes on this goonda raj.

 

 

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