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India Pakistan and Bangladesh
INDIA
Another
contempt of court case, this time against the editor of Kalchakra
Letter
to the Prime Minister of India
Your
Excellency,
The
Committee to Protect Journalists and Human Rights Watch are writing jointly to
protest the prosecution of Vineet Narain, founding editor of the New
Delhi-based investigative journal Kalchakra. Narain faces contempt of court
charges in Jammu and Kashmir State, where he says his life would be in serious
danger. We urge you to order an immediate inquiry into possible political
motivations behind Narain`s prosecution, and to provide him with appropriate
protection if he is required to appear in court in Jammu.
On
December 26, 2000, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court issued a notice summoning
Narain to Srinagar to answer a contempt-of-court charge arising from an article
in the December 16 edition of Kalchakra. The court took issue with a paragraph
in the article that questioned the role of Jammu and Kashmir High Court justice
T.S. Doabia in resolving a land dispute. The court said that the paragraph in
question "appears to be >per se contempt of the court as it has the
tendency of bringing the administration of justice to disrepute by attributing
disparaging motives and bias to a sitting judge of this court."
The
paragraph suggested that Doabia had been unduly influenced by his friendship
with IndianSupreme Court chief justice A.S. Anand, who formerly served as chief
justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. The February 16, December 1, and
December 16, 2000, editions of Kalchakra were devoted to allegations that Chief
Justice Anand had helped secure legal victories for close family members and
associates in various property disputes.
In
response to the High Court`s summons, Narain filed two petitions with the
Supreme Court of India, asking first that the contempt case be dropped
altogether. In the event that the case was pursued, he asked that the venue be
transferred to New Delhi in light of security concerns in Srinagar.
The
Supreme Court ordered Narain to petition the Jammu and Kashmir High Court
directly for a change of venue. The High Court eventually agreed to
transfer the case not to New Delhi but to Jammu, the winter capital of
Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Narain says he fears threats posed by militant groups in Kashmir who were angered by his investigations into their underground funding networks. Narain is well known in India for exposing the so-called hawala scam, a US$18 million dollar bribery scandal that implicated some of the country`s leading politicians. He reported that some of those allegedly involved in channeling payoffs to politicians were also responsible for transferring money to militant groups in Kashmir, including the Hezb-ul Mujahedeen. The Indian government acknowledged the potential threat to