Suspected militant’s father pleads for fair trial

Suspected militant Imran Jalaluddin’s 59-year-old father Shamsuddin Kota has appealed for a fair trial to his son, who is facing charges for his involvement in the terrorist strike at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore.

Kota, who had arrived in Bangalore from his native Hazratbal in Jammu and Kashmir, met City Police Commissioner Neelam Achyuta Rao before interacting with reporters informally.

“No Indian is above the law. All I am asking for is a fair trial for my son”, he said. “I don’t want my son to be convicted by the people and the police without being given a fair chance to tell his side of the story in a transparent manner”, he added.

Expressing concern for his son, Kota said the police had subjected him to narco-analysis thrice and each time they claim that he has confessed something new. However, the police have given Kota permission to meet his son, who is presently in police custody.

Kota’s version of the events that led to Imran’s arrest contradict the police claims of the police. While police claim that Imran was arrested from a Bangalore-bound bus from Hampi on January 5, Kota quoted Imran’s friend in Hampi and stated that some unidentified persons in Hampi had picked up his son on December 28.

However, Kota admitted that his son had been to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) for six months during 1989. “It was the beginning of the militancy in the valley and the security forces were regularly raiding his house those days”, he said.

Kota said he sent Imran to Bangalore in 1991 to do a diploma course in a private polytechnic. “But on his return to Kashmir in 1994, my son was arrested again and kept in custody for 40 days. He was released after a screening committee was convinced that he had completely dissociated from the militants. He was trying to carve out a new life in Hampi”, Kota claimed.