UP govt should file appeal in Hashimpura massacre case: Asaduddin Owaisi

Hyderabad: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) on Saturday demanded Uttar Pradesh government to immediately file an appeal against a Delhi Court verdict in the Hashimpura massacre case in which all 16 accused policemen were acquitted.

The trial court last week acquitted all 16 Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel, a reserve police force of UP Government, accused of abducting and killing 42 members of a minority community in Hashimpura, Meerut district on May 22, 1987, "giving them benefit of doubt for want of evidence". "It is a grave miscarriage of justice. Justice delayed is justice denied. The judgement itself says the investigation was botched up. So many people were picked up and killed.

These were killings done by the state itself, but perpetrators have not been punished," AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said. "So it is in the fitness of things that the Uttar Pradesh Government appeal against (this) judgement. The UP Government should immediately appeal against (the acquittal)," the Hyderabad Lok Sabha MP told reporters here.

It was the moral responsibility of Congress, BJP and BSP (parties that ruled UP at different times)) to ensure that justice is done to the victims of the massacre, he said. To a query on firebrand BJP MP Yogi Adityanath's visit to the city on Saturday for a meet, Owaisi said "a single person cannot be a threat to a country or a state." "My personal view is that no one should be banned (from entering a city or addressing public meets). And if anyone commits a wrong (by giving hate speech), then a case should be filed (against such person).

"But if their (hate) speeches result in riots, then definitely such people should not be allowed (to address rallies)," Owaisi added.