Remembering Shahid Azmi: A fearless crusader for justice

Advocate Shahid Azmi, defence counsel of Fahim Ansari, those accused in Malegaon blast of 2006 and Mumbai train blasts, was murdered in cold blood on February 11, 2010. Shahid Azmi’s murder follows a series of attacks on lawyers who dared to defend those accused of terror. Such lawyers, across the country from Uttar Pradesh to Madhya Pradesh to Maharshtra have been the targets of brutal attacks by right wing goons, often within the premises of the courts while the police watched idly. Azmi had received death threats as early as 2006 and had approached the Mumbai police, which failed to provide him any security. The MNS chief Raj Thackeray had also issued threats to lawyers who wanted to defend the accused in the 7/11 2006 local train blasts in Mumbai.

Shahid Azmi was arrested by Delhi police for being a member of SIMI in 1995. In appeal, Shahid was acquitted by the Supreme Court. He graduated while serving his sentence, completing his law course after his release. He began practicing law in Mumbai upon his release from Tihar and took up many criminal cases and raised important legal issues before the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court. The bulk of his legal practice comprised taking up cases of innocent Muslims who were harassed, arrested and tortured by the police. He had pleaded in court against the application of MOCOCA as well as POTA for his clients and his successful pleading in the Ghatkopar blasts case of 2002 led to the abrogation of POTA. He played a crucial role in securing justice for Ishrat Jehan, who was eliminated in a fake encounter in Gujarat.

In a recent legal victory for rights of the terror accused, Shahid had exposed the violence unleashed by the Arthur Road jail authorities who were torturing the under-trials into confessing their role in bombings. In his brief life of 32 years, Azmi made a lasting difference, but his untimely and violent death foreclosed rich possibilities that lay before him and, indeed for all of us interested in justice.

JTSA organized a memorial meeting in his honour at Jamia Millia Islamia on 22nd February 2010. senior lawyers Colin Gonsalves and Prashant Bhushan and journalist Ajit Sahi spoke on the occasion. Prashant Bhushan recalled how brilliant and competent Shahid Azmi was as a lawyer, and what was most remarkable about him was his passionate commitment to struggle against injustice. Colin Gonsalves rued the dangerous trend of attacks on lawyers defending terror accused across the country. Ajit Sahi, executive editor of Tehelka, whose series of stories on SIMI and other terror accused was based on inputs by Shahid Azmi said that “Shahid lived like a soldier and died like a soldier”. He also expressed fears that Mumbai Police was deliberately trying to save the real killers even as it announced the arrest of the supposed men who had fired at Azmi. He said that the only witness to the crime, Azmi’s peon, had not been asked called in for identifying the arrested men. He also hoped that the cases Azmi had been representing would still be fought by some other lawyers. (meanwhile, Azmi’s brother Adv. Khalid Azmi is now preparing to represent the case of 26/11 accused Fahim Ansari. The court accepted him as counsel for Fahim Ansari. However, the final arguments in the case will be made by senior counsel R V Monakshi.)

The gathering strongly condemned the statement of a Mumbai Police officer that the patriotic section of the underworld had carried out the killing and pledged to carry on the brave work Shahid Azmi had sacrificed his life for.

See also:
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=Ne050909walls_not.asp
http://www.countercurrents.org/khan140210.htm
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main44.asp?filename=Ws060310Amurder.asp