The Hindu. 30 May 2009

Thrissur: Kerala

" I hate this country for its lousy legal procedures "

The Nigerian embassy in New Delhi is awaiting an official request and clearance from the External Affairs Ministry to issue Emergency Travel Certificates (ETCs) for deporting the two jailed Nigerian footballers, who were released from Viyyur Central Jail on Thursday.

“We will not waste a minute to issue ETCs once we receive papers from the ministry,” a Nigerian embassy official told The Hindu. “The Indian side, however, should bear expenses for their travel back to Nigeria.”

Aadibe George (32) and Kinstan E. Chukku (32), both Nigerian footballers who had played for various clubs in Mumbai, were arrested by the Kattappana police on December 8, 2007, for traveling without valid documents.

The Kattappana Judicial Magistrate rejected their bail plea and the two were sent in judicial custody. Thus, the footballers, who reportedly came to Kerala for holidaying, ended up in the Viyyur Central jail. Mr. Aadibe suffered a stroke (posterior cerebral artery occlusion) a few months ago, and this paralysed his body.

Though the maximum punishment for travelling without valid documents is only imprisonment for a year, the Nigerians spent 18 months behind the bars.

“I hate Kerala”

Arun Kumar, a lawyer, who was among those who strove for the release of the footballers, recalled that Mr. Aadibe, in a fit of anger and frustration, had once screamed out in the court room, “I hate Kerala, I hate this country for its lousy legal procedures.”

A shadow of his former self, he was shifted from the Thrissur and Kozhikode Medical College Hospitals to the Pain and Palliative Care Centre, Thrissur. Later, he was moved to the District Hospital for neuro-rehabilitation treatment.

With the active intervention of human rights activists and lawyers, the High Court quashed the cases against both on May 26.

On Thursday, jail authorities handed over the custody of both to the Kattappana police.

India is quick to complain to other nations about ill treatment of Indians and violation of their human rights. One suspect it is a hollow protest meant for internal political reasons and not for genuine concern for human rights.

Look how foreigners get treated in India for the simplest of violations. This is just one example. There are so many cases, and spans a few decades, when all that is required is a well thought out streamlining of the administrative rules to prevent such gross violations of human rights and cruelty to innocent people, foreigners or locals alike.

No parliamentary majority or other such conditions are needed to amend and modernize the rules. Which was not done by the netas. And they are busy preaching and moralizing to other nations about the need for compassion, ahimsa and non-violence, justice and fairness. What a hypocritical image India projects outside.!

Some of the clauses in our Legal Syatem isPathetic!!I Hope thr is a change soon!!


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