Hyderabad: Indian Mujahideen men accuse judge of bias, demand new appointment

Hyderabad: Indian Mujahideen operatives Yasin Bhatkal and four others wrote a letter to the Metropolitan Session Judge in which they said “The court is not your kingdom and we are not your subjects whom you can treat like slaves”.

According to a report published in Deccan Chronicle, in the letter written on June 7, 2016, six months before the judgement, they anticipated regional bias saying that the judge was from AP and the defence lawyer was from Telangana. They were apprehensive that this could affect the judgement.

The letter further revealed that the organisation received complaints about the rude behaviour of the judge towards the accused and their advocates.

Another letter of IM operatives published in DC earlier, which is now with the RR district and session judge, had claimed that the judge was biased. Hence the culprits demanded appointment of new judge and said they would submit arguments only after fresh appointment.

As per the letter they also asked their advocates not to argue before the said judge fearing he will not give a fair judgement. The letter also alleged that despite complaining of police torture the judge did not prevent it, and claimed that during the Dilsukhnagar blasts trial, the judge was provided special security.

It must be recalled that the court had convicted IM operatives Yasin Bhatkal alias Mohammed Ahmed Siddibappa from Karnataka, Asadullah Akhtar from UP, Zia-ur-Rahman alias Waqas from Pakistan, Tahseen Akhtar from Bihar and Aijaz Shaikh from Maharashtra, in the twin blasts that rocked Dilsukhnagar on February 21, 2013. They were charged for murder, waging war against the country, conspiracy, attempt to murder and other criminal charges.