The Talk
The speaker was arrested and put behind the bars for 14 years only after which he was acquitted as innocent.
This Talk is about his experiences in jail, the lessons he learnt on law and justice and the role of media, its impact on an individual, a family and a community.
Mohd Aamir Khan, Human Rights Activist & Author
M Aamir Khan
In Feb, 1998, Mohammad Aamir Khan, then 18, an ordinary young Indian man, from the by-lanes of Old Delhi, who was kidnapped by the police, falsely accused of being a terrorist, framed and kept in jail for almost fourteen years.
In 2012, the court acquitted him in 17 out of 19 charges – after he had spent 14 years in jail. Released after a long and incredibly difficult legal battle, after surviving torture and solitary confinement, Mohammad Aamir Khan remains committed to the secular and democratic values that he grew up with. He refuses to be defeated, or to give up any of the dreams he has for himself, his family and the country that nearly destroyed him.
In 2013, the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) sent a suo-motu notice to the Central Government and Delhi Police to compensate Aamir and granted an interim relief of Rs. 5 lakhs. The case for his compensation is continuing with the NHRC.
He along with Nandita Haksar is a author of a book ‘Framed As a Terrorist: My 14-Year Struggle to Prove My Innocence’. Framed As a Terrorist is the harrowing and heart-rending narrative of the events that led to Aamir’s arrest, his days in prison, and how the experience has shaped him.
Mohd Aamir is now working as Human Rights activist with Karwan-e-Mohabbat/ Aman Biradari.