Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Muslim body slaps Rs. 10-cr defamation suit on city police - By Mustafa Shaikh, Mumbai Mirror, a Times of India publication

Jamat-e Islami Hind has taken a very correct, though long delayed action against rogue elements in Police and Media, who have played havoc with the lives and reputation of 200 million Indian Muslims, and had long had a field day without any accountability for their acts of commission and omission. Jamat action is very proper and legal and would get the judiciary on their side, as and when their stand is vindicated. Jamate Islami has shown a right direction to all other Muslim and Human Rights organizations to approach courts to get their grievances addressed, as both executive and legislation are patently against them and their rightful causes.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
<ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com>

----- ----- ----- ----- -----


http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/others/Muslim-body-slaps-Rs-10-cr-defamation-suit-on-city-police/articleshow/23010700.cms



Muslim body slaps Rs. 10-cr defamation suit on city police

By Mustafa shaikh, Mumbai Mirror | Sep 25, 2013, 12.11 AM IST
Muslim body slaps Rs. 10-cr defamation suit on city police
JIH members addressing the media on their case against Mumbai police for the ‘female jihadis’ memo
The Jamat-e-Islami Hind, a well-known organisation that runs more than 500 educational institutions across the country, has filed a defamation suit against the Mumbai police for allegedly linking one of its branches with terror-related activities.

The Muslim body has demanded Rs 10 crore as compensation from the city police for issuing a departmental communication stating that members of its women's wing, Girls Islamic Organisation (GIO), "were indoctrinating college girls and imparting training in jihad".

The internal circular had been leaked to the media in March.

Taufique Aslam Khan, president of JIH's Maharashtra wing, said they waited for nearly five months before taking any step as the cops had assured them that an inquiry would be launched and strict action would be taken against the person behind the leak.

"Despite assurance, we did not receive any reply from the Mumbai police. We sent them a legal notice in July. When that too did not result in any response, we decided to move the Bombay High Court," said Khan.

GIO members say theirs is one of India's largest Islamic organisations and runs 40 high schools and three junior colleges in Maharashtra. They allege the Mumbai police memo has severely dented their reputation. "Girls have stopped participating in our programmes," said Mohammad Aslam Ghazi, spokesperson of JIH's state wing.

The circular, issued by the Special Branch of Mumbai police in the third week of March, read: "The group GIO is an offshoot of the 65-year-old Jamat-e-Islami Organisation and is currently active in Kerala. The purported aim of this organisation is to make more and more Muslim women aware of their religion and the holy Quran. But the real objective of this organisation is to brainwash college and school girls and train them for jihad."

Ghazi said a delegation from GIO had met the cops in April. While they accepted that there was nothing incriminatory against Jamat's women's wing, they said they had acted based on some intelligence inputs, he said.

"Therefore, it is necessary for Mumbai police to compensate for the damages done to our peaceful organisation. The cops should have tried to keep a track on the activities of the organisation before attaching a terror tag to it," added Ghazi.

Mumbai police spokesman Satyanarayan Choudhary said, "The circular was meant to be only for the department and not for the public. As regards any inquiry into the incident, I do not have any information on it at the moment."

JIH official said they are also seeking legal opinions to take action against newspapers* that had reproduced the circular.

-----
* Times of India in its today's Mumbai print edition has mentioned that it did publish the police circular. TOI probably did not bother to get any comment from GIO or Jamate Islami