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Murdered Professor's Son to Fast-unto-Death
for CBI Probe
Bhopal, March 13 (Pervez Bari): Himanshu Sabharwal, son of late Prof.
H.S. Sabharwal who was allegedly murdered by a group of students in
August 2006 in Ujjain, reiterating his demand for CBI, India's premier
investigating agency, inquiry into his father's death, has declared
that he would go on fast-unto-death if his demand is not met till
March 20 by the Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP), ruled Madhya Pradesh
Government.
While welcoming the Supreme Court order to transfer his father's
murder trial case from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh to outside the state
at Nagpur in Maharashtra, Himanshu said:" It is an incomplete
victory".
Himanshu termed today’s directive a “moral and token” victory but
added: “It has not sanctioned retrial or a CBI probe.”
"My other main demand is a CBI inquiry into the case so that a fair
trial is conducted in the court and I and my family get real justice",
he averred.
Himanshu emphasized that the CID inquiry conducted by the Madhya
Pradesh Police under the BJP Government has many loopholes. " Merely
transferring the case out of Madhya Pradesh would not have much
impact. If a judge in Nagpur is going to take a view on the same
evidence the purpose of taking the case out of the state may be
defeated, he contended.”
He cited Ms Priyadarshini Matto and Ms Jessica Lall murder cases,
wherein the accused due to faulty investigations were acquitted by
trial courts but later on the High Court reversed the decision saying
it rarest of rare cases and awarded capital punishment, to drive home
the point that CID probe into his father's death was lop-sided with an
eye to save the accused.
The Supreme Court in its order said the “state has a definite role to
play in protecting the witnesses, to start with at least in sensitive
cases involving those in power, who have political patronage and could
wield muscle and money power, to avert a trial getting tainted and
derailed and truth becoming a casualty”.
It may be mentioned here that the Supreme Court also directed to
change the public prosecutor in the case. The Bench passed the order
on a petition filed by the slain professor's family alleging that free
and fair trial was not possible in Madhya Pradesh.
"We had pleaded for a re-investigation because there are allegations
of serious nature in which they have sabotaged, suppressed major
evidences," Himanshu said.
Himanshu air-dashed from New Delhi, where he is engaged in business,
to Bhopal on Thursday to address media persons to announce his
decision to undertake fast-unto-death in order to pin-down the real
culprits of his father's death and release an "open letter" to Madhya
Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accusing him of trying to
shield the abettors of the heinous crime.
In his letter Himanshu charged Chouhan of first sabotaging the
investigations into the murder of his father and then the trial at
Ujjain court which was, however, halted later by the Supreme Court. He
recalled that in his first reaction to Prof. Sabharwal’s death,
Chouhan had called it a “Hadsa" (accident). He has listed in the
letter the incidents that he believed were aimed at weakening the
trial.
It may be pointed out here that five members of the Akhil Bhartiya
Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the BJP’s student wing, face murder
charges. All the 54 witnesses had turned hostile in the Ujjain trial
court.
Prof. Sabharwal of Ujjain's Madhav college, died on August 26, 2006
after he was allegedly attacked by ABVP leaders protesting against the
cancellation of student union election in the university. The
professor had declared the election null and void. Protesting his
decision, some students of Madhav College had attacked him, leading to
his death.
Replying to a question Himanshu said the fast-unto-death would be
undertaken by him either at New Delhi, Bhopal or Ujjain where my
father was done to death. (pervezbari@eth.net)
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