Mohammad Habib Ahmed Khan, a 95-year-old terror convict, has asked the Supreme Court for permanent parole after serving a 26-year sentence.
Khan was tried & convicted of terrorist attacks in connection with the train bombings in six states in December 1993, a year after the demolition of the Babri Mosque.
The last wish of Khan is to bury him near his wife who died in the pandemic year 2020. Khan was also not allowed to attend the burial ceremony of his wife which accumulated vehement grief and aggression in his heart further accelerating his illness.
Khan was granted parole for the first time when he was 90 years old in August 2018, due to his age and the fact that his co-accused Asfaq had been granted parole.
In this alignment, Khan made a petition in the Supreme Court for permanent parole on account of his old-age and medical ailments. The hearing for the same was held on September 29.
Nishant Vyas, who was lawyer for Khan condemns the system’s inefficiency, pointing out that in the case of Asfaq v. State of Rajasthan, it was clearly stated that there are guidelines and judgements on granting parole to TADA convicts, but judges do not dare to approve their applications.
Vyas further reiterated that many of the convicts of terror cases have in real no direct connection to the happening or conspiracy. However, they are arrested pertaining to some faded link they have with the main accused.
Khan is one of 24,753 elderly convicts representing 20.5% of the total convicts over 50 in India, according to the National Crimes Record Bureau data for 2021.
Background of his conviction
In 1994, Khan was jailed for the first time in Kanpur Central Jail and in 2004, the Terror and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court in Ajmer convicted him under anti-terror law which was repealed in the year 2001 on the account of low conviction rate of 1.11 % for over nine years and got replaced by Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967.
The blast for which Khan got incarcerated was of low-intensity that killed two people and injured eight. With Khan, 14 other co-accused were given life sentences.
Scenario worst among Muslim prisoners
When it comes to granting permanent parole to Muslim convicts, the case is even worse, even if the convict is elderly and has health issues.
The guidelines issued by the National Human Rights Commission in 2003 postulated that every prisoner who has completed 14 years of imprisonment is eligible for early release. Further, the convicts of terror laws who are undergoing life sentences are also eligible for early release, if completed 20 years in prison.
If we go through the statistics of 2021 of NCRB data, we will be shocked to know that approx 18.7% of India’s prison account for Muslim convicts, however down from 20.2% in 2020 but still a worrying statistics considering the share of Muslim Muslim in India.
Reformative v. Retributive
There are various theories of punishment in order to determine the nature and concept of punishment. In the previous era, the instances of punishment were linked with vengeance and retribution, hence the main aim of punishment was to take vengeance from the accused for his doing. While later on, the system developed and the punishment got linked to reformation of the wrong-doer so as to make him a responsible citizen and generate guilt in him.
However, in the India’s justice system there is no sympathy towards the convicts and the sympathy don’t exists if we talk about the terror convicts belonging to the Muslim population. The defence of old-age and mental illness does not culminate into the reduction of punishment or granting permanent parole so as to give him a chance to spend his old age in the care and love of his family.
In the pandemic period, activist Medha Patkar submitted a petition in the Supreme Court for the release of prisoners above 70 years of age.
In the petition, she also mentioned that Rajasthan and Gujarat are the worst states for releasing old-age prisoners. She emphasized that out of 14,764 inmates in Gujarat, 90 are above 70 years of age and of the 9,679 inmates in Rajasthan, 84 are above 70 years of age.
