Remembering Shahid Azmi: A crusader of Justice
From choosing to join a terror outfit, to being wrongly imprisoned under the anti-terrorism law, to becoming a champion of human rights, Shahid Azmi has left us a truly inspiring journey.
After more than a decade, the murder of Mumbai based human rights lawyer, Shahid Azmi, there has not been a single conviction in the case.
It can be noted that on February 11, 2010, advocate Shahid Azmi was shot dead in his office at Taximen’s colony in Kurla, Mumbai. At the time of his murder, he was representing a number of Muslim youth accused in terror cases. To his credit, in a brief career of only seven years, he secured the acquittal of 17 men charged with terrorism and several other acquittals took place after his murder.
During his stay at Tihar Jail, he started his college education. He completed his graduation followed by a postgraduate Program in creative writing.
After he was acquitted of falsely implicated charges he went to Mumbai again for having a law degree (LL.B).
After completing his LL.B, Azmi started practicing as a defense lawyer for Majeed Memon, a well known criminal lawyer who later on to become a member of parliament. Soon, he started picking up cases of Muslims charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA). His first major success as a defence lawyer came in the 2002 Ghatkopar bus bombing case, when Arif Paanwala, who was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and was named the prime accused.
One of the won cases which Shahid Azmi fought was that of Faheem Ansari, a 26/11 terror accused arrested by Mumbai Crime Branch officials for helping Pakistani terrorists. He was assassinated during this case. A few months after his martyrdom, his younger brother Khalid Azmi completed his law degree and took ahead his brother’s mission himself.
Who was Shahid Azmi?
Born and brought up in a slum of Mumbai.
Martyred Advocate Shahid Azmi was a victim of 1992 Bombay riots, at the very young age of 16. Disheartened by the Muslims were targeted in Mumbai after the Babri Masjid riots. Azmi left Mumbai and join separatist organization in Kashmir. After returning from Kashmir Azmi was arrested in Mumbai by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Delhi Police in 1994. According to reports, Azmi was arrested on the charges of allegedly ‘conspiring’ to assassinate some top politicians of India including Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackery.
He spent nearly seven years at Tihar Jail, Delhi.
Assassination of Shahid Azmi
On this day in 2010, at around 9:00 PM when Shahid Azmi returned from the court, he was shot down by four men who posed as clients in his office. According to reports, five people were initially accused. Gangster Santosh Shetty was discharged in October 2014, while charges of murder and criminal conspiracy were framed against the remaining four in August 2017. Two out of the four accused, Pintoo Dagale and Vinod Vichare, are currently on bail, while Devendra Jagtap and Hasmukh Solanki are in jail.
Hansal Mehta’s film Shahid
This movie was on aired in 2013. Filmmaker Hansal Mehta made a film on the work and life of advocate shahid Azmi who is a lost life for valiant cause, starring Rajkumar Rao. Rajkumar Rao essayed a role of martyr Advocate Shahid Azmi and acknowledged by the best actor national award.
Hansal Mehta wrote, Shahid Azmi, wish I could tell him how he changed my life, wherever you are Thank you Shahid.
Professional ideology of Shahid Azmi
Faheem wasn’t the only person accused of terror whom Shahid represented. Nor was he the only one he helped acquit. Shahid was involved in defending the accused in the 2002 Ghatkopar bombing, 7/11 Mumbai train blasts, 2006 Aurangabad arms haul, and 2006 Malegaon bombing.
Many believe, that he was shot dead because of his work. In an email conversation, Letta Tayler, a researcher on terrorism with the Human Rights Watch and an author of the report The “Anti-Nationals”: Arbitrary Detention and Torture of Terrorism Suspects in India, told that when she met Azmi in June 2009, “I couldn’t help but fear for his future as I heard him speak.”
Tayler’s fear about Shahid’s future was not baseless. In April earlier that year, another Muslim lawyer, Naushad Kashimji, was killed in Mangalore, coastal Karnataka. Kashimji, along with his senior Purushottam Poojary, represented several terror accused.
They were labelled “terrorist lawyers” and attacked not just by members of Hindutva groups but, at several places, even by fellow lawyers.
However, his incarceration made him more empathetic towards those charged with terrorism, providing him rare insights into the Indian criminal justice system. This, in turn, shaped him into not just a lawyer who was courageous but one who was highly effective fighting for the opperesso.
He was guided by the words of Roy Black, an American civil and criminal defense lawyer: “By showing me injustice, he taught me to love justice. By teaching me what pain and humiliation were all about, he awakened my heart to mercy. Through these hardships, I learned hard lessons. Fight against prejudice, battle the oppressors, support the underdog.”
In one of his few public interviews, he shared his feelings for the victims of blasts. “I am pained, the heart bleeds, when I hear what they have endured,” he said. “But in spite of all that, it’ll never be easy for me to see an innocent being sent behind bars or to the gallows only because the crime alleged was a bomb blast.”
What is remarkable is that Shahid’s work and legacy has inspired hundreds of young people across India to take up law as a career and to fight for justice for those being oppressed.
ADVERTISEMENT
