Form of words:
New Delhi: In February 2010, Hamir-Ui-Uddin was arrested for his alleged involvement in the 1993 serial bomb blasts on Rajdhani Express trains in Rajasthan. More than a decade later, the trial in his case is yet to begin.
The special CBI court in Ajmer, where Hamir’s case is pending for the last ten years, has not even heard the arguments on the charges in the case, which is the first stage of the criminal trial.
On 27 March 2019, nine years after his arrest, Hamir’s bail plea – on grounds of excessive delay – was also rejected by the court. He then challenged the order before the Supreme Court, which sought a report from the special court as to why charges have not been framed in the case yet.
Responding to the apex court’s direction on 18 August, the Ajmer court submitted that the case against Hamir could not proceed as the original records were not in its possession when he first appeared in March 2010.
The papers were with the Supreme Court, which was hearing the appeals of 15 co-accused in the blast case, noted the court’s report, which was accessed by ThePrint. There was also no public prosecutor to conduct the trial till 2019.
Following this submission, the apex court bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud directed the special judge to expedite the trial of Hamir, setting an upper limit of two months for passing orders on framing of charges.
Meanwhile, the bail application for the 46-year-old is now pending and will be heard again by the bench this December.
Read also: Man acquitted after being in jail for 11 years in Jaipur blasts, then accused on the same evidence
‘Farar’ Hamir arrested in 2010
On the intervening night of 5 and 6 December 1993, a series of explosions took place in six trains of Rajdhani Express, killing two and injuring 22.
Five separate FIRs were registered against 23 people and the CBI claimed that one accused had died, while six, including Hamir and Syed Abdul Karim alias Tunda, absconded.
Hamir was formally arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police on 2 February 2010, more than 16 years after the bombings from his residence in Lucknow.
Meanwhile, 15 others were arrested before him and in February 2004, a trial court sentenced them to life imprisonment. The Supreme Court later upheld the conviction on 11 May 2016.
However, since Hamir was arrested only in February 2010, his custody was later transferred to the CBI and a supplementary charge sheet was filed against him on 9 September 2010. More than 160 people have been named as witnesses in the chargesheet.
His family has denied the CBI’s claim that Hamir was absconding after the blasts.
“When the police met the family for the first time after the bombing, they assured that he would not be arrested as there was no evidence. This was the reason why he was mentioned in column number two of the first chargesheet filed in the case, which means that the accused was not sent for trial,” his lawyer Farooq Rashid told ThePrint.
Hamir’s sister, Ayesha, said that her brother had left India for a job in the Middle East when a police team visited their home in January 1994 after the blasts. He returned after a year and a half and went to Mumbai.
“He came back to Lucknow around 1999 and has been living either with my parents or with me since then,” he told ThePrint.
Read also: Azadi is a ‘different kind of prison’ for innocent Kashmiri man after 23 years in jail
No file for 6 years, no public prosecutor for 9 years
In his report to the Supreme Court, Special Judge Sandeep Sharma said that the original file of the case was sent to the apex court on June 1, 2004, when it was hearing the appeals filed by 15 co-accused against the February 2004 trial court order. Was being .
Since the appeals were decided on 11 May 2016, the CBI court got back the files only on 14 July 2016. Therefore, the court could not hear the case for six years due to lack of records.
Subsequently, further delays in the initiation of the trial were attributed to the lack of a public prosecutor to argue on behalf of the CBI.
According to the report, “Despite various letters to the concerned authorities, no Special Public Prosecutor was notified by the Central Government from November 9, 2010 to August 5, 2019.”
On 5 August 2019, Bhavani Singh Rohilla was appointed as Public Prosecutor but the case was adjourned several times between 11 December 2019 and 20 March 2020.
Special Judge Sharma claimed that this was because Hamir’s co-accused Tunda was not produced from the Ghaziabad jail where he lived, and the special prosecutor also sought time to prepare the case.
The report suggested that there was no hearing in the case in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read also: How do I start life at 43, asks Vishnu Tiwari who spent 20 years in jail for false rape
delayed to 2021
In 2021, the case was adjourned seven times as either Tunda or his lawyer was absent.
The subsequent transfer of the judge hearing the case further delayed the proceedings and the matter was not heard for the next four dates.
According to the CBI court report, Hamir did not even have a lawyer to present his case in the trial court. Her family said, had been informed twice about hiring a lawyer, but there was no response from their side.
However, Ayesha said that the family is not aware of any such letter. “Also, my father is illiterate and hence, even if he has received such a letter, he would have no clue how to proceed or how to go with the legal formalities,” she said.
Things took a turn in 2017 when she intervened in the matter and joined her brother.
According to lawyer Rasheed, Hamir has spent more than half the maximum period of detention for an undertrial prisoner in a life sentence.
Referring to the 2004 order, he said, “He is now entitled to bail, the trial in the original case took nearly a decade to conclude.”
Read also: Delhi has 75% more prisoners, 69% of all prisoners in India are undertrials
subscribe our channel youtube And Wire
Why is the news media in crisis and how can you fix it?
India needs free, unbiased, non-hyphenated and questionable journalism even more as it is facing many crises.
But the news media itself is in trouble. There have been brutal layoffs and pay-cuts. The best of journalism are shrinking, yielding to raw prime-time spectacle.
ThePrint has the best young journalists, columnists and editors to work for it. Smart and thinking people like you will have to pay a price to maintain this quality of journalism. Whether you live in India or abroad, you can Here.