Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday said the Opposition was “mistaken” about his controversial letter to Chief Ministers on taking action against the police officials for framing “innocent Muslim youths” in terror cases.
Producing his letter at a Press conference, Shinde said he only used the term “minority” whereas the word “Muslim” was used to refer to the complaints from certain organisations.
“The Home Ministry keeps writing such letters. I wrote the letter after receiving representations from various NGOs and others about harassment of Muslim youth. We (Home Ministry) are not saying that. But political parties misunderstood it,” he said.
Shinde said that the Opposition had read his letter in a way that suited them. “If someone wants to misunderstand, what can we doIJ If someone’s culture is to put things in the dustbin, they can do it,” he said, when asked to comment on BJP’s statement that the said letter by him should be thrown into the dustbin. However, Shinde parried away the questions on why he differentiated between minority and majority. “What can I say, if you people ask such kind of questions. My letter is applicable to all… it is about false cases against all,” he said.
The Home Minister also evaded questions on the maximum allegations of frivolous cases on Muslim youths were registered in Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Delhi. “There are such instances everywhere… as far as liyaqat case, we have handed over the case to NIA and he is released,” he said.
Delhi Police had arrested liyaqat Shah in March and claimed that the middle aged man was planning serial blasts during Holi. But later it was found that he came back to India along with his wife and disabled daughter as per the amnesty scheme of the J&K Government. The case was handed over to NIA. The Court had criticised Delhi Police for framing an innocent person and released him in June. However, no action was initiated against Delhi Police officials for his illegal custody.