Akshardham terror attack: SC refuses compensation plea of acquitted persons

Observing that awarding compensation to the accused after their acquittal would lead to dangerous phenomena, the Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the petitions filed by six Muslim men acquitted in the 2003 Gujarat Akshardham temple blast case seeking compensation and proper rehabilitation for incarcerating them for 11 years.

A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra, however, granted liberty to the petitioners to file appropriate suit for malicious prosecution before the trial court concerned. “Your contention, that compensation should be awarded in cases of acquittals, will result in a dangerous phenomena. You have a remedy for malicious prosecution by filing suit against appropriate authorities,” Justice Misra told senior counsel K T S Tulsi appearing for the petitioners.

The convicts — Chand Khan, Adam Ajmeri, Mufti Abdul Qayyum, Mohammed Altaf, Mohammed Salim, and Maulvi Abdulla — who were acquitted, demanded compensation, rehabilitation and punishment to officials who falsely implicated them in the case. They also demanded that the Gujarat government and then chief minister Narendra Modi — who headed the home department — should adequately compensate them for the long periods of incarceration they wrongly suffered.

“Not only should they be booked, they should be prosecuted so that an example is set for all such security officials booking innocent Muslim youth and ruining their lives forever,” they said. “Our lives have been totally ruined because of this case. Our families were hounded. We have nothing in life and have to start from scratch at this age. The time lost in jail will never return. Now the state government must at least give us suitable compensation for the manner in which we were wrongly implicated,” the accused added.