Leading Indian American Organizations, Activists Urge Indian Supreme Court to Give Bail to Sanjiv Bhatt
The Indian American Muslim Council ( IAMC ), an advocacy group dedicated to safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant ethos, and Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), which is committed to the ideals of multi-religious pluralism in the United States, India and beyond, along with leading politicians, civil rights activists and organizations from India and the US have urged India’s Supreme Court in an online press conference to grant immediate bail to former police officer Sanjiv Bhatt, calling his conviction in a murder case wrong and based on fraudulent evidence.
IAMC and HfHR were joined by leading personalities from India such as Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor, renowned documentary filmmaker and human rights defender Anand Patwardhan, human rights activist and artist Mallika Sarabhai and Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey in criticizing Mr Bhatt’s conviction, predicting that it would not stand under judicial scrutiny, and urging the Supreme Court to set him free immediately in order to uphold the rule of law.
Sanjiv Bhatt is widely believed to have been targeted only because he had claimed to be an eyewitness to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s complicity in the mass violence against Muslims during the Gujarat pogrom of 2002. The horrific violence, perpetrated by Hindu nationalist forces owing allegiance to the supremacist ideology of Hindutva, claimed the lives of over 2,000 people many of whom were raped and burnt alive. It led to the US Department of State revoking Mr Modi’s US visa under the International Religious Freedom Act. The revocation was in place until Mr Modi became Prime Minister of India.
The Supreme Court of India has scheduled a bail hearing for Mr Bhatt on January 22. Under Indian law, courts can grant bail to those convicted of various crimes, including murder, pending their appeal at higher courts. Mr Bhatt was convicted in June 2019 for the death of a man in 1990. His defense was not allowed to cross-examine prosecution witnesses during the brief trial, nor was it allowed to present its own witnesses or submit evidence. India’s human rights groups have called it a sham trial.
Dr Shashi Tharoor, currently a member of Parliament and formerly an Undersecretary General at the United Nations, said he was “outraged by the injustice meted out” to Mr Bhatt, whose “conscientious service to society” and “indomitable capacity for speaking truth to power” had put him in jail.
“Sanjiv’s case is a reflection of the grim times that we live in, where constitutional values and fundamental privileges that have been granted by the constitution to all Indians appear in many cases to be diluted and in many cases perhaps even supplanted by illiberal forces,” Dr Tharoor said. “All Indians with a conscience like Sanjiv Bhatt’s must stand up and fight back against such challenges that threaten to undermine the very foundation of our republic.”
Filmmaker and human rights defender Anand Patwardhan said Mr Bhatt had been jailed “for no other reason than the fact that he opposed the massacre in 2002” and spoke against it. Mr Patwardhan said the civil society “should build a movement for Mr Bhatt’s release.”
Human rights activist, classical dancer and actor Mallika Sarabhai said there was a “definite agenda” not only in the retribution against Mr Bhatt but in the case of most critics of the Modi government. “If anyone speaks against the government or asks a question, which is a fundamental right of our democracy, they are somehow punished. Raids are carried out against them, false cases are brought up, fraudulent charges are made, and they are made to silence,” Ms Sarabhai said.
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