Why unfair to Muslims -- Indian Judicial Systems needs to answer
Dr. Javed Jamil
The treatment with the minorities in India is no better than the minorities like Blacks and Muslim immigrants in many Western countries including the United States. In India, Muslims, criminals or innocents, are more likely to be arrested, more likely to be detained as undertrial, more likely to be convicted, more likely to be sentenced to death or life imprisonment and more likely to be actually executed.
This is also confirmed by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).. An Indian Express report “Most Prisoners in India Are Muslims, BCs: NCRB” by Rohan Premkumar says:
“In India, you are more likely to be lodged in prison if you are a Muslim, or belong to the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Communities (OBC), reveal statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Though Muslims comprise only 14.2 percent of the total population of the country according to a recent census data, they constitute 26.4 percent of the prison population.
Moreover, 60.3 percent of all inmates are classified as belonging to the OBC, SC and ST communities. 'Other' communities constitute the remaining of the prison population. OBCs and STs constitute 38.1 percent of all 'detenues'. Detenues are persons detained in prison on the orders of a competent authority under relevant preventative detention laws.
“Prisoners’ Data
Total Prisoner Population 4.18 lakhs
Percentage of Hindus 63.6
Percentage of Muslims 26.4
Percentage of Sikhs
Percentage of Christians 5.85
Other Religions
“While “Muslims constitute around 30 percent of all prisoners, in the 'pre-trial phase', the number of convicted Muslim prisoners stand at only 16.4 per cent.
“Activists point out that the last statistics clearly points to a 'prejudiced' police system across the country, where minorities are 'targeted' by the law enforcement agency.
“Speaking to Express, A Marx, a human rights activist and Chairperson, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations, said that the criminal justice system was inherently prejudiced against members of the backward communities and Muslims.
"Since 1980, it has been established that Muslim men are being detained unjustly by the police. There have been demands to establish fast-track courts to deal with Muslim undertrial prisoners, where those found innocent are provided compensation, and officers who make wrongful arrests are punished immediately," Marx said.
“Senior leader of the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, M H Jawahirullah, spoke of incidents over the last few years, including the Malegaon blasts in 2008, where young Muslim men were picked up on suspicion by Anti-Terror Squad personnel, before being released after finding that the blasts were in fact masterminded and carried out by Hindu fundamentalists.
"Just because the statistics show that more Muslims are in prison does not necessarily mean that members of the community are prone to be criminals. Muslims are also the targets of biased police officers,” he said.”
The fact that while about 26 pc Muslims are lodged in prisons, only about 16 pc are convicted speaks for itself the discrimination against Muslims. And if the trials had been as fair or unfair as it takes place in the cases where high caste Hindus are involved, the percentage of convicts would have been much less than the percentage of Muslims in the population.
The truth is that the whole judicial system tends to disfavour the underprivileged classes including minorities. The police tend to apprehend Muslims whenever they get the least opportunity. The police tend to arrest people for four reasons: (1) when they really suspect someone to be involved; (2) when they just want to apprehend someone for a crime when it becomes news; and (3) out of their aversion for certain communities or groups; and (4) just to make money by offering release in return of money. Muslims have less money to pay and less political patronage. In addition, the aversion for the community makes it more likely that they will not be released and will then be formally charged and tried. Of course, they are also more likely face tortures of all kinds in the police custody. They also have lesser chances of fair trial because they are in no position to hire good advocates to defend their cases. Fortunately, the judges in the High Courts and Supreme Court enjoy a good reputation as far as honesty is concerned; but the same cannot be said about the lower courts where advocates often tell their clients to pay to the judges in order to get a better judgment.
And of course when the high-profile terror cases are involved, Muslims are more likely to be hanged. The attacker on the Parliament has been hanged, while the killers of Former Prime Minister Rajeeva Gandhi have not only not been hanged but are waiting for an early release. Yakub Memon has already been hanged and the other Muslims involved in Mumbai attacks and other such cases are likely to be “brought to justice” by Indian legal system sooner than later. But the persons responsible for the riots after Babri Masjid and Mumbai and Gujarat riots are nowhere in queue for being “brought to justice”.
The writing on the wall is clear: if Muslims are the victims and Hindus culprits, the law will give a justice favouring the culprits; if Hindus are victims and Muslims culprits, the law will favour the victims. And even if the Muslims accused are finally freed by the court, they will already have faced long years of imprisonment and more than normal torture at the hands of the police.
Dr Javed Jamil is India based thinker and writer with over a dozen books including his latest, “Muslim Vision of Secular India: Destination & Road-map” and “Qur’anic Paradigms of Sciences & Society” (First Vol: Health), “Muslims Most Civilised, Yet Not Enough” and Other works include “The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism”, “The Essence of the Divine Verses”, “The Killer Sex”, “Islam means Peace” and “Rediscovering the Universe”. Read more about him athttp://www.worldmuslimpedia.
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