Thursday, November 13, 2014
Criminal case against Modi in Australia
The American Justice Centre, a U.S.-based non-profit human rights organisation, has filed a criminal complaint against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Australia, arguing that in presiding over the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat he was responsible for “ordering, facilitating, inciting, participating, conspiring, aiding, abetting and carrying out organised attacks on civilian population of the State of Gujarat belonging to Muslim faith”.
The AJC, which filed the complaint in Canberra a day ahead of Mr. Modi’s scheduled visit there kicking off, made headlines in September during Mr. Modi’s closely-watched visit to the U.S. when it filed a similar complaint there and a federal district court in New York responded by issuing summons against Mr. Modi.
Mr. Modi will be in Australia as a part of a ten-day tour that included the ASEAN summit in Myanmar following which is set to participate in the G-20 meetings in Brisbane.
The plaintiffs, who are apparently victims of the Gujarat riots represented by AJC in the complaint, were fully identified in the Australian case though only their first names were mentioned in the U.S. lawsuit.
Among the plaintiffs was Asifbhai Vahora who, the complaint recounted, was an Indian citizen from Anand, Gujarat, who in 2002 was “trapped” in a nearby village by “an armed contingent of BJP-RSS workers,” who then “beat him severely and left him to die.”
When Mr. Vahora was later working as volunteer in the relief camps set up by NGOs for the victims of the riots, he was again “tortured, beaten, hounded, intimated, threatened by the workers of BJP and RSS,” the complaint said, and subsequently was turned away by authorities when trying to register a case against his assailants.
The AJC complaint goes on to argue that the administration of Gujarat was “completely complicit,” in the events of 2002, as was Mr. Modi as Chief Minister of the state at the time.
Not only did such complicity occur during the time of the riots, the case documents note, but Gujarat officials have also been “negligent” in attending to the resettlement and rehabilitation needs of the riot victims since that time.
Under Australian law Mr. Modi’s violated the Criminal Code Act of 1995, specifically sections 268.8 and 268.9, which together provided for five charges linked to “genocide” and “crimes against humanity,” the complaint says, adding that on this basis it called on Australia’s Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution to “indict and prosecute” Mr. Modi.
Labels: 2002, American Justice Centre, ASEAN Summit., G-20 nations, Gujarat riots, Modi, Modi role in riots, Narendra Modi
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