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DaijiworldMedia Network – Mangalore (PS)

Mangalore, Sep 14: As part of its nationwide campaign ‘Bail is the rule: Release Innocents’, Popular Front of India (PFI) Karnataka held a people awareness meet at the Town Hall here on Thursday September 13.

Delivering his speech, Abdul Razak Kemmaru, state council member, PFI, said that the constitution of the nation is very strong and avails every citizen of this country have equal justice, safety and freedom. “However, some prejudiced political powers and capitalists have been targeting Muslims and those who raise their voice in favour of poor rural people are labelled as maoists and terrorists.

Many draconian acts like TADA, POTA, and UAPA have been used to arrest the innocent people,” he alleged. He asserted that one should not rest until their rights are guaranteed.

Hamzath Hejamady, advocate, while addressing the gathering, spoke on the topic of custodial death and fake encounters. He stated that when a Muslim accused is arrested by the police, they shell out bad treatment and added that "when a thorn can be removed by a needle, the police use an axe for the act".

The Supreme Court of India had passed a rule with regard to the policy of treating an accused who is in police custody, but they are not being followed, he said. He stated that there were as many as 14,231 custodial death cases across the nation in a span of 10 years from 2001 to 2010 and added that there were many more cases which have gone unreported.

Elyas Mohamed Thumbe, state president of PFI Karnataka presided over the function. Advocate Sathish Kumar Bantwal and Suresh Bhat Bakrebailu were present among the others.