
Hyderabad's historical royal mosque to now double up as legal mediation centre
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The mediation centre, which will be open to people cutting across religious lines, will formally begin functioning from Saturday.
The aim behind the centre is to help people resolve disputes and avoid knocking on the doors of police stations and courts for every issue. The mediation outcome will be binding on the disputing parties and its order recognised by court.
The royal mosque, which was the official mosque of the princely state of Hyderabad where Nizam VII Mir Osman Ali Khan offered Friday congregational prayers, has been running some sort of mediation centre for many years.
But this centre had no recognition. Now, with the permission from the Telangana Legal Services Authority, it will formally become an authorised mediation centre. All the staff handling the centre have been trained and certified by the legal services authority.
Of late, mosques in Hyderabad have evolved into community and social service centres, with several of them running clinics, old age homes, diagnostic centres, coaching classes for competitive exams and schools.
A brainchild of moulana Dr Ahsan bin Mohammad Al-Hamoomi, Imam of the royal mosque, the mediation centre will deal with all types of civil disputes, including marital and inheritance. It will function every Saturday after the Zohar prayers (around 2 pm).
Named Al-Ifadah Mediation Centre, it will primarily focus on issues related to the Muslim community, though people of all religions may approach it for out-of-court solution of their legal problems.
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'This centre is a second opinion legal cell. We have legal experts supervising us with their guidance,' said Dr Ahsan, adding that most problem could be solved through mediation without people having to spend years fighting in courts.
He, however, pointed out that those not satisfied by the mediation may go to court.
'We will not give judgment, but our decisions will be authorised by courts,' he said.
The entire proceeding will be kept confidential and the identity of the disputing parties will not be revealed to the public.
Renowned preacher Asifuddin Muhammed welcomed the establishment of the mediation centre, emphasising its role in fostering peace within the Muslim community by providing a dignified alternative to police intervention for domestic disputes.
'This initiative promotes harmony, preserves family bonds, ensures confidentiality, aligns with Islamic principles, and eases the burden on police personnel and the judiciary,' Asifuddin said, urging the community to support the effort.
It Will Be Open To All Religions, Says Imam
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Hindustan Times
39 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
BJP says Congress should apologise for 'Hindu terror' claims
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday welcomed the acquittal of all the seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case and attacked the Congress, accusing it of coming up with the theory of 'Hindu terror' to appease its 'Muslim votebank', and demanded an apology from the leadership of the Opposition party. The Congress hit back, accusing the BJP of 'polarising' every issue. BJP says Congress should apologise for 'Hindu terror' claims Nearly 17 years after the blast in Muslim-dominated Malegaon in Maharashtra claimed six lives in 2008, a special NIA court in Mumbai acquitted all seven accused, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit on Thursday, noting there was 'no reliable and cogent evidence' against them. 'The Congress can go to any extent to appease its vote bank. This case was a well-calculated conspiracy of the party for sheer vote-bank politics,' BJP lawmaker and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters after the court's verdict. He slammed Congress veterans and former home ministers P Chidambaram and Sushilkumar Shinde for promoting the idea of saffron and Hindu terrorism. Chidambaram used the term while addressing the annual conference of DGPs and IGPs on August 25, 2010, he said. 'There was no evidence against any of the accused. Colonel Purohit, who fought against terrorism in Kashmir, was accused. Pragya Thakur was accused of using her motorcycle in the blast. She was tortured so much that she could not walk after that. This was a Congress conspiracy for sheer vote-bank politics,' Prasad said, demanding an apology from the Congress leadership. On Wednesday, Union home minister Amit Shah during a special discussion on Operation Sindoor in the Rajya Sabha had slammed the Congress for coining the term Hindu terror, while asserting that 'Hindus can never be terrorists'. Welcoming the court verdict, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in a post on X said: 'Terrorism was never saffron, is not and will never be.' The RSS, BJP's ideological fount, also hailed the verdict, saying the truth has been clarified by the court decision regarding the Malegaon blast case. 'Some individuals, driven by personal interests and political motives, misused power in a malicious attempt to associate Hinduism and the entire Hindu community with terrorism. Through a lengthy judicial process and based on facts, the court has today, with its decision, nullified those baseless allegations,' RSS chief spokesperson Sunil Ambekar said. Maharashtra deputy CM Eknath Shinde, who is also the president of Shiv Sena, an NDA partner, said the verdict has wiped off the stigma on the Hindu community. 'Truth is never defeated. After a long battle of seventeen years, a special court has acquitted seven alleged accused in the Malegaon bomb blast case. It is true that justice was delayed, but it has once again been proven that truth is never defeated,' Shinde wrote on X. Hitting back at the BJP, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters: 'They (the BJP) polarise everything. There was no good prosecution, good evidence was not collected… how should this matter be let go, if this is what the government has in mind, then what do they do on the prosecution side?' His party colleague Digviyaya Singh dismissed BJP's charge, saying the Congress never coined the term saffron terror. 'There is no terrorism on the basis of religion. There is neither Hindu terrorism nor Islamic terrorism. Every religion is the embodiment of love, faith, truth and non-violence. There are only a few people who use religion as a weapon of hatred. But you keep saying that the term Hindu terrorism was given by the Congress. You are absolutely wrong,' Singh told reporters. Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal asked the state government if it will move the higher court against the verdict to ensure justice is delivered in the Malegaon case. 'As soon as the verdict of the 2006 bomb blast was announced, the state government challenged it before the Supreme Court. Will the state government show the same will in this case, as both were the act of terrorism and the perpetrators of the cases should face justice,' he said, referring to the recent acquittal of convicts in the 2006 Mumbai blasts case. The top court set aside the HC order. Speaking to reporters in the Parliament complex, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said, 'Will the Modi government and the Maharashtra government challenge the verdict in Supreme Court? Or will they continue their hypocrisy on terrorism?' (With inputs from Mumbai bureau)


Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
‘Strong suspicion not same as proof': All 7 acquitted in '08 Malegaon blast
Mumbai: Citing lack of "cogent, reliable, and acceptable evidence", a special NIA court on Thursday acquitted all seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "The court of law is not supposed to proceed on popular or predominant public perceptions…the more serious the offence, higher the degree of proof needed for conviction," special judge A K Lahoti said. "Though there was strong suspicion of the accused, it cannot take place of legal proof." Six of the seven accused had spent nine years in jail as undertrials till 2017 before getting bail in a case purportedly linked to a plot by right-wing extremists to terrorise the local Muslim population of Malegaon. Six people died in the 2008 blast and 101 were injured. The judgment, delivered after a legal process lasting 17 years, highlighted lapses in the probe conducted by the state's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) before it was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The judge pointed to retractions by numerous witnesses and shortcomings such as mishandling of the crime scene and planting of evidence. After the verdict, Thakur took a seat in the witness box. Addressing the judge, she said the verdict was a "victory for Hindutva." Breaking down, she said her life was destroyed by the humiliation and stigma of being labelled a terrorist for 17 years. "Jinhone bhi humaare saath galat kiya, prabhu unko kabhi kshama nahi karega (God will punish those who wronged us)" Purohit, who arrived in court with military security, said the agencies are not wrong, but the people running them were. Acquitting all seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon case, a special NIA court focused on the failure of the prosecution to establish that a bomb was fitted inside a motorcycle. Based on the evidence, special judge A K Lahoti said, "there is a possibility of keeping a bomb from the outside on the same motorcycle, by hanging, etc." The judge also noted that it could not be proved that the bike on which the bomb was allegedly fitted belonged to accused Pragya Singh, that RDX was procured by Purohit from Kashmir, or that he assembled the bomb. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The NIA judge said the conspiracy in the case remained unproven due to absence of evidence and witnesses who would testify that a series of meetings were held by the organisation named Abhinav Bharat to plan the attack. ATS investigations focused on the alleged conspiracy by a group intent on avenging perceived atrocities against Hindus. Striking terror by orchestrating a bomb blast in Malegaon, a Muslim-dominated area, was the alleged objective. However, the judge said to show that the conspiracy was finalised at Faridabad and Bhopal, the prosecution was not supported by "material witnesses" and the testimony of those who did was not "reliable and acceptable. ..other meetings which were held at Kolkata, Indore, Ujjain, Nashik and Pune, no acceptable evidence is present on these on record…witnesses have retracted from their earlier statements given to ATS. Therefore neither conspiracy is proved nor meetings are proved," the judge said. While it was alleged that Ajay Rahirkar, acting as treasurer of Abhinav Bharat, collected donations and distributed funds to Lt Col Prasad Purohit, who was a trustee, as well as to Sudhakar Dhar Diwedi and Major (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay, Purohit used the funds for personal expenses, including house construction and paying for LIC policies. "But there was no evidence that the said amount was used for terrorist activities," the judge said. The retraction of statements given by 39 of 323 prosecution witnesses to the ATS considerably weakened the case. "The testimony of prosecution witnesses is riddled with material inconsistencies and contradictions," the judge said. Referring to procedural shortcomings, the judge criticised the handling of the crime scene. No sketch was drawn and the spot was not immediately barricaded, leading to contamination. He pointed out that a mob gathered after the blast, vandalised vehicles, caused damage to a police chowki, and snatched firearms of cops, which led to a lathicharge, police opening fire and using of grenades. No fingerprints or DNA samples were collected at the spot. Even material seized such as mobiles and laptops were not sealed as per due process. The judgment also raised concerns about procedures adopted for collecting voice samples and intercepting mobile communication. Interceptions were not authorized in the specific period, rendering intercepted data unusable as evidence. It was noted that "narco analysis was carried out of the accused by ATS but not supported by documents." The judge even raised concerns about planting of evidence. He recommended an inquiry into the actions of ATS officer Shekhar Bagade, whose presence at an accused's house was seen to be suspicious. The judge said despite allegations that Purohit brought RDX from Kashmir, no evidence was presented to show its storage at his house or its use in assembling the bomb. Interestingly, the NIA supplementary chargesheet in May 2016 had accused the ATS of planting RDX traces to frame Purohit and, notably, gave a clean chit to Pragya Thakur and others. However, the special court on Dec 27, 2017 ruled that seven accused, including Thakur and Purohit, would face trial under UAPA. In conclusion, the judge on Thursday spoke of the "agony, frustration and trauma caused to society at large, more particularly to the family of victims by the fact that heinous crime of this nature has gone unpunished." "However law does not permit the court to convict the accused solely on the basis of moral conviction or suspicion," he said. The case will now continue against two absconding accused, Ramji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange.


Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
‘God Will Never Forgive Those Who Framed Us'
Mumbai/Pune: It has been painful to endure accusations for 17 years, Lt Col Prasad Purohit told TOI after being acquitted in the on Thursday. Purohit, currently stationed at an Army unit in Mumbai, said, "I did not do anything against my country. There is nothing above the nation. How can a serving army officer, who sacrificed so much while serving for the nation, be involved in acts of terrorism?" He spent almost nine years in jail. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "I lost the cream period of my active service, facing difficulties on multiple fronts - personal, professional, family, friendships, and societal. What was more painful was that my wife, children (2 sons) and my family members endured these painful years." At the time of arrest, Purohit was with the Army's corps of military intelligence. "I fought for justice to prove I was never involved in this. The journey was long and unbearable. But I had faith in the judiciary, and today's verdict is testament to my belief," he said. Pragya Thakur, dressed in saffron robes, sat in the witness box and broke down after the verdict was pronounced. "I was detained illegally for 13 days and tortured. I was living my life as a sanyasi and was labelled a terrorist. My life was destroyed by the allegations," she said, addressing the court. She added, "Ye bhagwa ki vijay hui hai, Hindutva ki vijay hui hai (Saffron has won, Hindutva has won)." She said she was happy at least the judge heard their side. "My life has become meaningful now. Whoever did wrong with us, God will never forgive them," she said. Referring to police in the courtroom, she said, "The way those people did illegal work within the law, our life has been ruined. I can't live a moment in peace. I want to keep myself alive; maybe I am alive because I am a sanyasi. You have defamed the bhagwa." Sudhakar Chaturvedi, another of the acquitted accused, said, "I was framed and tortured by police. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now A bomb was planted at my house. My nails were plucked. It was not a Hindu-Muslim thing. A verdict has been delivered, not justice… It wouldn't be considered justice until those who framed us are charged." He added their legal battle was still on. "NIA has mentioned ATS planted a bomb at my house, and I was targeted due to my bhagwa attire," he said, adding that when he was taken into ATS custody, he was forced to take the names of Yogi Adityanand and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. Major Ramesh Upadhyay (Retd) told TOI, "My family and I went through pain and agony for 17 years but today is a day of celebration. Life will be much happier for me after today… On this day, I remember Balasaheb Thackeray, who stood by us." Another acquitted accused, Sameer Kulkarni, said when he was arrested, he felt like "a dirty blame" had been put on him. He argued his case himself; he said if other accused had not hired a lawyer, the trial would have ended 15 years ago. He accused the defence and prosecution of prolonging it. The verdict, he said, "is a rebirth for us." Talking to media outside the court, Purohit said, "I am extremely grateful to the court and all those who stood by me for understanding the case and delivering justice... Malice is over, and it should not be there. We are a great country, a developing nation. I expect and wish everyone should contribute positively towards the country. Let's be forward-looking." (Reported by Mateen Hafeez, Shourya Avankhedkar, Pushkraj Vernekar, Prasad Kulkarni & Sandip Dighe)