Modi hits out at Shinde for comment of arrests of minority youth

Writes to PM seeking intervention, advise for Union Home Minister

BJP's prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat chief minister on Wednesday took a dig at Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s statement of wrongful arrests of minority youth and sought intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard.

In a letter to Singh today Modi strongly condemned Shinde's statement and said it could give a wrong message about the country’s criminal justice system, and have a demoralizing effect on the entire law enforcement machinery.

According to an official release, Modi was expressing concern over Shinde's earlier statement “Strict and prompt action against erring police officers should be taken where there is malafide arrest of any member of minority community, wrongfully arrested person should not one be released immediately but they should also be suitable compensated and rehabilitated to join the mainstream.”

Modi brushed aside Shinde's statement as 'brazen' and 'callous' attempt to woo the minority community. Even the minority community will raise questions on the timing of such statements, the release said.

The Gujarat chief minister further stated that the police and public order were state subjects with investigation being an integral part of it, and so, any wrongful and malafide arrest of a citizen, irrespective of his caste or community, should get the same redressal.

Condemning the home minister’s suggestion of setting up review or screening committees to assess the role of minority youths languishing in jails on terror charges without trial, Modi urged the Prime Minister to intervene and advise the Shinde not to direct his attention to only the minorities.

"Home Minister’s suggestion was against the constitutional principles and hit the ‘right to equality before law’. A crime is a crime irrespective of the birth marks of the criminal, and that his religious beliefs could not determine the guilt or innocence," Modi said in his letter to PM.

Modi was of the view that the proposed directive of setting up review committees was against the provision of criminal law, that does not provide for any review committee for withdrawal of pending cases where charge sheets have been filed.

“One cannot rule out the possibility of the trials getting delayed due to such illegal action on the part of the State if the Courts were to find fault with such interventions made on extraneous considerations.If this were to happen, undertrial prisoners will end up being under incarceration for longer periods; thus achieving exactly the opposite of the purported objective,” wrote Modi.

Instead, Modi suggested, Shinde find a solution within the constitutional framework. This would have the benefit of convicting and punishing the real perpetrators of terrorism while acquitting the innocent people in a time frame, he added.

Modi also stated that the Home Minister should, instead, focus on monitoring the terror cases being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

“It would be interesting to know how many innocent youth are found to be wrongly implicated in these cases. I hope the Home Minister understands that every case of acquittal need not be a case of wrongful arrest and false/malafide implication,” Modi mentioned in the letter.