NHRC issues notice to MHA and Delhi Police on Amir case

The National Human Rights Commission today issued a notice to the Union Home Ministry and Delhi Police over reports of wrongful confinement of a youth in jail for 14 years and sought a report on the matter within four weeks.
The Commission took suo moto cognizance of media reports about Mohammad Amir, who was released in January this year after 14 year long incarceration in jail due to wrongful arrest on the February 27 in 1998, from old Delhi as an alleged 'terrorist' when he had just turned 18.
The Commission has directed the Delhi Police Commissioner to submit the entire record of the 12 cases filed against Amir along with his report.

"While Amir remained confined to a solitary high security cell in Delhi's Tihar Jail, he had little idea that his father had passed away in penury and his mother got paralysis suffering a brain haemorrhage and losing speech amidst a social boycott," a statement issued by NHRC said.
"The issue raises serious questions on the functioning of the police and if true, the contents of the press report amount to grave violation of human rights of the victim Amir who was implicated in false cases," the Commission observed.
According to media reports, Amir left his home near Azad Market in old Delhi for Pakistan on December 12 in 1997 to visit his sister who was married there and returned on February 13 in 1998.

A fortnight later, he was arrested on charges of executing the bomb blasts subsequent to his training in Pakistan.
Amir, with the charges of murder, terrorism and waging war against the nation, was named the main accused in 20 low intensity bomb blasts executed between December 1996 and October 1997 in Delhi, Rohtak, Sonepat and Ghaziabad.
Five of these explosions had occurred during a single evening in places as wide apart as Sadar Bazar in Delhi and Ghaziabad, many miles away.