NEW DELHI: Responding to growing allegations of wrongful arrests of Muslim youth in terror cases, the government is planning to provide legal assistance to those who have been jailed on prima facie “doubtful” charges.

Sources in the home ministry said that officials have been asked to formulate norms for identifying those who may have been wrongly booked.

The development follows the decision of the Centre to set up 39 special courts across the country to take up terror cases registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Almost all these cases have members of the minority community as the accused.

"There is a genuine concern that some of the jailed Muslim youth could be innocent. So, we are considering the option of providing legal assistance to them to get a fair trial," a senior home ministry official said.

However, sources conceded that sifting the “doubtful cases” from the genuine ones can be potentially tricky; even fraught with the risk of attracting charge of “appeasement”.

Earlier this year, minority affairs minister K Rahman Khan had expressed his concern to home minister Sushilkumar Shinde over "wrong arrests" of Muslim youth in different parts of the country in terror-related cases.

Apprising the home minister of the apprehensions expressed by various Muslim bodies that the "draconian" provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act can be misused against minorities, Khan had proposed setting up of special courts to ensure speedy trial of all terror cases.

Fully backing Khan’s suggestion, Shinde wrote back to him saying, "you have my assurance that this will happen."

