anata Party president Subramanian Swamy has accused Home Minister P.
Chidambaram of having a hand in the shooting of 41 Muslim youth by the
Police Armed Constabulary personnel during the communal riots in
Meerut's Hashimpura in 1987. Swamy said he was going to file an
application in the court to expand the scope of the inquiry to
interrogate Chidambaram, who was then Minister of State for Internal
Security.
"Not as an accused at the moment, but I am entering the matter with new
material. He (Chidambaram) will definitely be made an accused. If you
ask me, personally, I will say he is an accused," said Swamy. However,
he said he would file the application on a later date.
Twenty-five years after the incident took place on 22 May 1987, the case
is still going on at the Tees Hazari and the Ghaziabad Sessions Courts
and the next date of hearing is 4 June.
"The Muslim youth, aged between 15-35 years, were picked up from
Hashimpura by UP PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary) personnel and taken
by truck to Ganga Canal near Muradnagar, 20 km away, ordered to get off
the truck one by one and shot. The bodies were thrown into the canal.
But obviously some were not shot, but they feigned death," said Swamy.
Some of these youth later turned witnesses to the cold-blooded killing.
Swamy said Chidambaram had visited Meerut during the communal tensions
and even conducted an aerial survey of the area on 14 May 1987: "He
(Chidambaram) admitted to this (aerial survey) in Parliament. On 20 May
1987, he took a meeting with the PAC people and the Chief Minister. He
never admitted to this meeting. The then MP from the area, Mohsina
Kidwai, was never called for the meeting."
Swamy said he has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that a
special probe should be instituted to investigate Chidambaram's role in
the incident that became infamous as the Hashimpura massacre, failing
which he would approach the International Court of Justice under Article
17 of the Rome Statutes.
Swamy had fasted unto death in August 1987, demanding an inquiry into
the massacre by a Central agency. A year later, he took out a padayatra
from Meerut to Lucknow demanding a probe in the killing.
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