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.
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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.
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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 body of jurisprudence and a category of rights inhering in our Constitution.
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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.
Sd/
- Manisha Sethi, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association
- Ahmed Sohaib, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association
- Sanghamitra Misra, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association
- Adil Mehdi, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association
- Ghazi Shahnawaz, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association
- Ambarien Alqadar, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association
- Farah Farooqi, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association
- Tanweer Fazal, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association
- Yug Mohit Chaudhry, Advocate, Mumbai
- Vrinda Grover, Advocate, Delhi
- Kamini Jaiswal, Advocate, Delhi
- Trideep Pais, Advocate, Delhi
- Mayur Suresh, Advocate, Delhi
- Jawahar Raja, Advocate, Delhi
- Madhumita Dutta, Vettiver Collective, Chennai.
- Arvind Narrain, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore
- Lawrence Liang, Alternative Law Forum
- Siddharth Narrain, Alternative law forum
- Rakesh Sharma, Filmmaker
- Ajay Bhardwaj, Filmmaker, Delhi
- Jesse Knutson, Academic, Delhi
- Dr. Nandini Chandra, University of Delhi
- Kaveri Gill, Delhi
- Gautam Mody, Secretary, New Trade Union Initiative
- Prof. Ali Javed, University of Delhi
- Satnam Kaur, Saheli
- Prof. Alok Rai, Academic, Delhi
- Dr. M. Vijayabaskar, Faculty, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai.
- Darryl D’Monte, Mumbai
- Shivam Vij, Journalist, Delhi
- Amit Thorat, Delhi
- Ankur Dutta, Academic, Delhi
- Ritu Dewan, Delhi
- Venugopal Maddipati
- Ruhi Saith
- Kaushik Bhaumik, Senior Vice President, The Film House, Osian's
- Dr. N. Sukumar, Dept of Political Science, Delhi University
- Dr. Anand Teltumbde, IIT Kharagpur
- CN Subramaniam
- Shrimoyee Nandini Ghosh, Lawyer and Legal Researcher, New Delhi
- Khaliq Parkar, JNU
- Wilfred D’costa, Indian Social Action Forum—INSAF
- Mary E John, Academic, Delhi
- Aamena Ahmad
- Askok Choudhary, NFFPFW
- Hany Baby, Univ. of Delhi
- Jaya Menon, Academic, Aligarh Muslim University
- Jenny Rowena, Academic, Delhi University
- Mayanka Dave Mukherji, LSR College, Delhi University
- Nadim Asrar, Journalist, Delhi
- Rangnath Singh, Journalist, Delhi
- Dr. Shadab Bano, Academic, Academic, Aligarh Muslim University
- Dr. Sk Ehteshamuddin Ahmed, Academic, AMU
- Dr. Kaushikee, Academic, JMI
- Ritu Sinha, Academic, Delhi
- Supriya Chaudhuri
- Prof. Tripta Wahi, University of Delhi (Retd.)
- Vijay Singh, Forum for Democratic Struggle, Delhi University.
- Lesley A Esteves, journalist, Delhi
- Panini Anand, journalist, Delhi
- Saba Naqvi, jourmalist, Delhi
- Prof. Nirmalangshu Mukherjee, Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi
- Jawed Naqvi, journalist, Delhi
- Paramita Ghosh, Journalist, Delhi
- Ram Puniyani, All India Secular forum
- John Dayal, Delhi
- Shweta, SRUTI (Society for Rural Urban & Tribal Initiative)
- Subhash Ghatade, writer and activist, Delhi.
- Madhuresh, National Alliance for Peoples’ Movements (NAPM)
- Sukumar Muralidharan, journalist, Delhi
- Dhruva Narayan, Managing Editor, Daanish Books
- Ajitha GS, publishing professional, Bangalore
- G. Arunima Associate Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
- K. Saradamoni, Economist, Thiruvananthapuram
- Prof. Mohan Rao, Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Sabeena Gadihoke, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
- Prof. Shohini Ghosh, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
- Sohail Akbar, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
- Prof. MS Bhatt, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
- Dr. Neshat Quaiser, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
- Sabina Kidwai, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
- Shamya Dasgupta, journalist/writer, Bangalore
- Shikha Jhingan, filmmaker, Delhi
- Prafulla Samantara, Co-convenor, Lok shakti Abhiyan
- Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, Editor Milli Gazette
- Nandini Sundar, Professor, Department of Sociology, DU
- Ashley Tellis, DU
- Brinda Bose, Associate Prof., Department of English, DU
- Neeraj Malik, Indraprastha College
- Javed Malick, Formerly Khalsa College
- Rahul Govind, Delhi University
- Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Raks Media Collective, Delhi
- Prof. Ranjani Mazumdar, Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Mukul Kesavan, writer and historian
- Arun Khote
- Arjumand Ara, Academic, Delhi
- Rakhi Sehgal, Trade Union activist, Delhi
- Sreenivas VP
- Subasri Krishnan, Independent Filmmaker, New Delhi
- Jairus Banaji, Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
- Dr. Anirudh Deshpande, Department of History, University of Delhi
- Prof. Amit Bhaduri, economist, Delhi.
- Prof. Anand Chakravarti, Academic, Delhi
- Asit Das, activist, Delhi
- Ravi Sundaram, CSDS
- Trisha Gupta, writer and editor
- Peggy Mohan, author, Delhi
- Satya Sivaraman, activist and filmmaker
- ViBGYOR Film Collective, Thrissur
- Saheli, Delhi
- Anivar Aravind, activist, Bangalore
- Kavita Krishnan, AIPWA
- Sanjib Baruah, Professor of Political Studies, Bard College, New York; Honorary Professor, Center for Policy Research, New Delhi.
- Chitra Joshi, Department of History, I.P. College, University of Delhi
- N. A. Jacob, Department of English, Ramjas College, University of Delhi
- Madhavi Zutshi, Department of English, Khalsa College, University of Delhi
- Rochelle Pinto, Academic, Delhi University
- Jonathan Gil Harris, Professor of English, George Washington University, Washington DC
- Madhavi Menon, Professor, Department of Literature, American University, Washington DC
- Rohini Hensman, Writer and Activist
- Tapan Bose, SAFHR, Delhi
- Pradeep Narayanan, Head, Research and Consultancies at Praxis Institute for Participatory Practices
- Ravikant, Sarai, Delhi
- Shivsundar, Journalist, Bangalore
- Dr. Malem Ningthouja, Campaign for Peace & Democracy Manipur
- Antara Dev Sen, Little Magazine, Delhi
- Mariam Shaheen, Journalist, Delhi
- Gauri Lankesh, Bangalore
- Ragini Saira, Academic, Amherst
- Seema Guha- Journalist, New Delhi
- Rajesh Sinha- Journalist- New Delhi
- Puneet Nicholas Yadav- Journalist, New Delhi
- Yadvendra Michael Yadav- Lawyer, Bhopal
- Sohail Hashmi, Delhi
- Sabiha hashmi, Art teacher, Bangalore
- Asad Zaidi, Publisher and writer, Delhi
- Meera Ahmed, Academic, Delhi
- Naveen Chander, New Socialist Initiative, Delhi
- Dr Rina Ramdev, Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University
- Hemangini Gupta, PhD candidate, Emory University.
- Nandini Dutta, Academic, Delhi University
- Nalini Nayak, Academic, Delhi University
- Dr. Nikita Sud, Academic, University of Oxford
- Akhil Katyal, Academic, St Stephens college
- Sumi Krishna, Academic, Bangalore
- Soumya Dutta, Academic, Delhi University
- Dr. Saroj Giri, Academic, Delhi University
- Uma V Chandru, WSS Karnataka
- Ranjana Padhi, PUDR
- Geeta Seshu, Journalist, Mumbai
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- Dr. PK Vijayan, Academic, Delhi University
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- Dunu Roy, Hazard Centre, Delhi
- Manohar Elavarthi, Praja Rajakiya Vedike, Bangalore
- Sameer Saran, UNHCR, Kabul
- Prof. Ayesha Kidwai, Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Prof. Achin Vanaik, Delhi University
- Uzair Alim, New Zealand
- Misha K. Alim, Chennai
- Kamayani Bala Mahabal, Lawyer, Activist
- Anita Ghai, Fellow, Teen Murti and Delhi University
- Kiran Saheen, Activist
- Rukmani Datta, Activist, Bombay
- Kaveri Rajaraman Indira, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
- Dolly Daftary, USA
- Badal Malick, New York
- Laxmi Murthy, Journalist, Bangalore
- Sheba George, Activist
- Rukmini Sen, Senior Journalist
- Pankaj Jha, Delhi University
- Saumya Bhattacharaya, Delhi University
- G N Saibaba, Delhi University
- Roopa Dhawan, Delhi University
- Tara Basumatary, Delhi University
- Vijaya Venkataraman, Delhi University
- Naveen Gaur, Delhi University
- Abha Dev Habib, Delhi University
- Prof. Janaki Nair, Academic, Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Padmaja Shaw, Osmania University
- Richa Minocha, Jan Abhiyan Sanstha, Himachal Pradesh
- Mahtab Alam, writer and activist, Delhi
- Mansi Sharma, activist, Delhi.
- V Suresh, General Secretary PUCL
- D Nagasaila, PUCL,
- Kavita Srivastava, PUCL
- Arati Chowksi, PUCL
- Sachin N, Delhi University
- Debjani Sengupta, Delhi University
- DW Karuna, Chennai
- Kumar Sundaram, activist, Delhi
- Harjeet Singh Gill, Professor Emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Raji Govind, Coimbatore
- Anirudddhan Vasudevan, Chennai
- Mahmood Farooqui, Writer, Delhi
- A.Suneetha, Senior Fellow, Anveshi, Hyderabad.
- Saumya Uma, Consultant, Law, gender and Human Rights, Mumbai
- Anusha Rizvi, Filmmaker, Delhi
- Rajashri Dasgupta, Journalist, Kolkata
- Prof. Ujjwal Kumar Singh, Academic, Delhi University
