New Delhi, May 5 : Press Council of India Chairman Markandeya Katju today appealed to the Centre to release Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah, who was injured in a scuffle in a Jammu jail and undergoing treatment at a hospital in Chandigarh.
“I appeal to the Indian Government to forthwith send back Sanaullah, a Pakistani prisoner who was attacked in a Jammu jail and is said to be in coma, to Pakistan, as requested by the Pakistan Government. This will be a humanitarian act,” Katju said.
The PCI chief also appealed to Governments of India and Pakistan to immediately set up committees to review cases of all prisoners, and to set up mechanisms for early release of those convicted on alleged ‘confessions' or insufficient or suspicious evidence.
Full text of his appeal:
I appeal to the Indian Government to forthwith send back Sanaullah, a Pakistani prisoner who was attacked in a Jammu jail and is said to be in coma, to Pakistan, as requested by the Pakistan Government. This will be a humanitarian act.
I also appeal to the Governments of India and Pakistan to immediately set up committees to review cases of all prisoners in the other country, and to set up mechanisms for early release of those convicted on alleged ‘confessions' or insufficient or suspicious evidence. Many of such persons have been convicted on alleged ‘confession'.
Everyone knows how ‘confessions' are obtained in our countries (by third degree methods).
Hence reliance on these for conviction is totally unsafe.
Unfortunately many people regard nationals of the other country with a lot of prejudices, and it is time that these prejudices are removed, otherwise great injustice can be caused, as in the cases of Dr. Khalil Chishty and Sarabjit Singh.
• Justice Katju
