Justice for Mr. Hashim Qureshi, a Kashmiri

Honorable Mr. Chief Justice of India

I would like to draw your attention to grave injustice with reference to a case of Double Jeopardy in your jurisdiction. This is regarding the case against Hashim Qureshi, Chairman JK Democratic Liberation Party. On January 30 1971, an FIR was lodged against him in Saddar police station of Srinagar, J&K. It was registered under Act 3 of Enemy Agent Ordinance. In addition, cases under Section 365, 120-B, 435 and 392 were filed. Whereas in Pakistan, Mr. Hashim Qureshi was sentenced under Section 3 of Official Secret Act for 14 years, under Section 342 for one year, under Section 435 for 2 years and under Section 120-B for 2 years in connecting of hijacking an Indian plane from Srinagar to Lahore. In all he was given 19 years imprisonment.

The court in Srinagar has accepted that a case cannot be tried for the second time on Double Jeopardy proviso. But since the case was tried in Pakistan under different clauses and in India different clauses were applied, as such the law of exemption from second prosecution could not cognizable

It is interesting to mention here that in an almost identical case the Indian Judiciary handled differently: In 1981 Satnam Singh and Gajender Singh hijacked an Indian plane and took it to Lahore. The court in Lahore punished both of them. They spent 13 years in jail. Satnam Singh later on returned from Canada to India. He was presented before Miss Sangita Dhingra Sehgal, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi, on 20 February 2002. The judge dismissed the case saying, It is a common law that no one could be punished twice for the same offence. The judge focused on same offence, irrelevant of the clauses under which the cases were registered. Satnam Singh walked out of the court the same day as a free man

Different yardsticks are applied to Kashmiris in India. Mr Qureshi spent one year in jail in Srinagar and is continuously haunted by this judicial injustice. The charges leveled against Mr. Qureshi are the ones for which he has already been punished by the courts in Pakistan. Leading advocates in India share the opinion that a person cannot be tried twice for the same offence nor can he be punished a second time. Under Clause 7 of Article 20(2) of the Indian Constitution, a person cannot be prosecuted for the second time for the same offence even if the person has been tried for the same case in some other country. Political gimmicks and government sponsored terror is the base of this case against Mr. Qureshi, which is a total abortion of the judicial system of India. Even though Mr. Qureshi is on bail (medical grounds) at the moment, this politically motivated case and injustice has made Mr. Qureshi a prisoner of conscience.

Your honor, we need justice, so that a man is not punished twice and a warning can be sent to vote hungry politicians that the Indian Constitution and its judicial system are not their playing tool.

Please do Justice.