Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, June 23: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh alleged here today that Sheikh Abdullah had arrested Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee without following a proper legal procedure and the subsequent detention of Mookerjee in a Kashmir jail for a protracted period of 44 days was also illegal.
Delivering a talk to commemorate the death anniversary of Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Dr Jitendra Singh said, if Dr Mookerjee’s only guilt was that he was trying to enter Jammu and Kashmir without a proper permit, the natural course of justice would have been to repatriate him, send him back to Punjab or prevent him from entering into the territory of Jammu and Kashmir. “The Sheikh Government, on the contrary, acted in haste as if it was waiting to arrest Dr Mookerjee and put him behind the bars under Section 3 of Public Security Act,” he said.
Since Dr Mookerjee was an elected member of Lok Sabha from South Kolkata constituency, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Sheikh Government tried to follow the convention of informing the Lok Sabha Speaker about his arrest but no convention or procedure was followed while carrying out the arrest, nor was a proper trial carried out for the charges, if any, levelled against him. “Dr Mookerjee was mercilessly thrown behind the bars in a Srinagar jail, as if he was a criminal and during the 44 days of his stay in the jail, not a single representative of the State Government showed the courtesy to visit him or inquire about him,” he added.
Not only this, Dr Jitendra Singh recalled, on the 24th of May 1953 Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru and the then Union Home Minister K N Katju arrived at Srinagar as Sheikh Abdullah’s guests but none of the three bothered to inquire about Mookerjee who was lodged in a jail just a few kilometers away.
“Even when Dr Mookerjee breathed his last under mysterious circumstances early morning at 3.40 a.m. on 23rd of June 1953, the news of his death was held back for several hours and finally broadcast on All India Radio at 12.50 p.m. Not only this, when Mookerjee’s body was airlifted from Srinagar without any formal respect or courtesy, the State Government headed by Sheikh Abdullah refused to pay even the Indian Airlines fare of Rs.7548/-,” said Dr Jitendra Singh.
Even if it is conceded, Dr Jitendra Singh said, that Sheikh Abdullah followed the rule of justice in ordering the arrest of Dr Mookerjee, the question is why it took more than a month for the Sheikh Government to take a decision about sending Mookerjee back.
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