Bangladesh Detains 1,600 in Drive Against Islamist Radicals
By The Associated Press
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Jun 11, 2016, 6:44 AM ET
Authorities have rounded up about 1,600 criminal suspects, including a few dozen believed to be Islamist radicals, in a nationwide crackdown aimed at halting a wave of brutal attacks on minorities and activists in Bangladesh, police said Saturday.
The attacks — including two Hindus in the last week — have alarmed the international community and raised questions about whether Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's secular government can maintain security for minorities in the Sunni Muslim-majority country.
Police and paramilitary soldiers fanned out across the country Thursday night, raiding suspected militant hideouts and detaining about 1,600 people by Friday night, police said.
The majority of those detained, however, are described as petty criminals. Only 37 of them are suspected to be radical Islamist militants, according to police spokesman Kamrul Islam. Those include three charged with alleged membership in the banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh.
None of those arrested is believed to be a high-level operator who might have organized or ordered attacks, police said. All the detainees are being held in jail.
Hasina's government has faced criticism for failing to prosecute suspects for at least 18 killings carried out over the past two years. Victims include atheist bloggers, foreign aid workers, university professors, gay rights activists and religious minorities including Hindus, Christians and Shiite Muslims.
Hasina had announced the anti-militancy campaign after the wife of a police superintendent was shot and stabbed to death on June 5 as she was waiting with her son at a bus stop. The victim had been an ardent campaigner against Islamist militants, and her murder stunned the country's establishment, many of whom considered the victim as one of their own.
Speaking to Parliament on Wednesday, Hasina vowed to root out radicals bent on spreading terror and violence in a bid to restore the country to Islamic rule.
"If they think they could turn Bangladesh upside down, they are wrong," she said. "They will be exposed to justice in the soil of Bangladesh and their patrons will also not be spared."
The attacks have followed a pattern: A group of young men wielding knives or machetes approach their victim as his or her guard is down, perhaps while strolling down the street or relaxing at home. The attackers spew hateful language, then hack and stab at the victim before disappearing, often without a trace. Many victims are killed with a machete blow to the back of the neck.
Authorities have arrested some suspects in some of the 18 attacks, mostly low-level operatives accused of following orders to carry out attacks, but none has been prosecuted. Police have said they are waiting until investigations are complete before taking any suspects to court.
Amnesty International has criticized the government for inaction, saying it is creating a culture of impunity. It also said authorities are failing to address increasing numbers of reports of people receiving threats.
"The brazen announcement by violent groups that they will continue targeting those they perceive as 'insulting Islam' should shake the Bangladeshi authorities out of their complacency," Champa Patel, the right's group's director in South Asia, said in a statement. "Ignoring the problem is not a solution. The authorities must categorically condemn these killings, carry out a prompt, thorough, impartial and transparent investigation, deliver justice for the victims, hold the perpetrators accountable, and protect those still under threat."
Nearly all the attacks have been claimed by transnational Islamist extremist groups, including the Islamic State group and various affiliates of al-Qaida. The killing Friday morning of a Hindu ashram worker in northern Bangladesh was also claimed by the IS group, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity online and cited the Amaq News Agency.
Hasina's government, however, says transnational terror groups have no presence in the South Asian nation of 160 million. It blames the attacks on domestic groups aligned with political opposition parties, though it has presented no evidence of such a campaign and the opposition denies the allegations.
On Friday, the opposition BNP party said it was worried the government campaign against extremists would lead to efforts to suppress opposition parties.
"The crackdown is a strategy which the government earlier used to suppress the people's movement. We fear that they will again oppress the opposition in the name of conducting a crackdown," BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said.
source URL: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bangladesh-detains-1600-suspected-radicals-end-attacks-39775389
o o o
3,000 arrested in Bangladesh as PM vows to catch killers
By Afp
Published: 11:23 GMT, 11 June 2016 | Updated: 11:23 GMT, 11 June 2016
Bangladesh police have arrested more than 3,000 people in a sweeping nationwide crackdown following a spate of gruesome murders, they said Saturday, as the prime minister vowed to catch "each and every killer".
Those detained include 37 suspected Islamist militants and hundreds of potential criminals who previously had warrants out against them, as well as several hundred ordinary arrests, police said.
Bangladesh is reeling from a wave of brutal killings that have spiked in recent weeks, with religious minorities, secular thinkers and liberal activists the chief targets.
Bangladesh is reeling from a wave of murders of secular and liberal activists and religious minorities that have left more than 40 people dead in the last th...
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Bangladesh is reeling from a wave of murders of secular and liberal activists and religious minorities that have left more than 40 people dead in the last three years ©Munir Uz Zaman (AFP)
"We have arrested 3,155 people including 37 Islamist militants as part of the special drive over the last 24 hours," A.K.M Shahidur Rahman, deputy police inspector general told AFP.
"The militants included 27 members of Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)," he said.
The JMB is one of the main domestic militant outfits blamed by the government, which rejects claims from Islamic State group and a South Asian branch of Al-Qaeda that they are behind the killings.
The country's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told a meeting of her ruling Awami League party Saturday that police would stamp out the violence.
"It may take time, but God willing, we will be able to bring them under control," Hasina told a meeting of her ruling Awami League party on Saturday.
"Where will the criminals hide? Each and every killer will be brought to book as we did after the 2015 mayhem," she said, referring to a deadly transport blockade last year organised by opposition parties.
However, Bangladesh opposition parties immediately accused the police of using the crackdown to suppress political dissent.
"Hundreds of opposition activists have been arrested in the police drive," Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told AFP.
"In the name of the crackdown against Islamist militants, many ordinary and innocent people are being detained."
Hasina has accused the BNP and the country's largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, of orchestrating the attacks after they failed to topple the government in last year's transport blockade.
- JMB arrests -
Police detained some 350 people in the country's second-largest city of Chittagong and its surrounding areas.
They include one suspect in the murder of Mahmuda Begum, the wife of a top anti-terror police officer who was fatally stabbed and shot last weekend.
Her husband had led several high-profile operations against the JMB in Chittagong and her killing prompted the police to vow to catch her killers.
"We suspect Shahjahan Robin as the prime offender in the murder of (anti-terror officer) Babul Akter's wife," Chittagong police chief Iqbal Bahar told AFP.
In recent days an elderly Hindu priest was found nearly decapitated in a rice field, while a Christian grocer was hacked to death near a church, with Islamic State group claiming responsibility for the killings.
A Hindu monastery worker was found hacked to death Friday in the northwestern district of Pabna.
Police have targeted domestic militant outfits, however, specifically the JMB, with five members of the group shot dead in gunbattles this week.
Nine members of the JMB were arrested in Rajshahi, Shariful Islam, a police inspector in the northwestern district said Saturday.
Several attacks have occurred in the district including the killing of a liberal professor in April.
As well as the arrests, police said they had seized nearly 1,000 motorcycles across the country.
Motorbikes have been used in many of the attacks, with the government recently announcing a ban on motorcyclists carrying more than one passenger.
source URL: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3636456/Bangladesh-arrests-37-Islamist-militants-crackdown.html
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Showing posts with label Anti Terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anti Terrorism. Show all posts
June 11, 2016
June 10, 2016
Bangladesh: Anti Terror clampdown in response to recent targeted killings
The Daily Star, June 10, 2016
Police launch drive against militants
Weeklong clampdown comes in response to recent targeted killings
Rafiul Islam
In the wake of recent spate of targeted killings, including that of SP Babul Akter's wife on Sunday, the police department is beginning a weeklong clampdown on militants across the country today.
The decision came from a meeting of top police officials with Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque in the chair at the police headquarters in the capital yesterday.
In the meeting, the IGP directed all concerned to hunt operatives of militant outfits and also deal all types of criminals with an iron fist to stop the killing spree and maintain law and order.
Officials say the anti-militancy operation is being launched as the department is convinced that militants have gained ground and that's why they could go as far as attacking a police family.
Police and the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) will carry out raids separately. If they feel necessary, they will do it jointly. Besides, members of Border Guard Bangladesh will join the drives in the bordering areas, sources in the headquarters said.
The meeting participants, with the rank of superintendent of police (SP) and above, were asked to update the lists of militants immediately in their districts, ensure strong vigilance on different religious institutions and security of foreigners and maintain a watch over tenants and strangers.
The police boss categorically said the officers-in-charge of police stations will have to take the responsibilities for any sort of violence or militant attack in their respective areas, meeting sources said.
The field-level officers have been directed to know the present whereabouts of all suspected militants in their areas, a top police officer said. “We have been also asked to make a list of militants in hiding.”
Another top official said, “Written instructions will be sent to districts regarding the drive.”
In the meeting, many of the participants admitted that law and order has deteriorated across the country and voiced concern over the rise in recent secret killings. They also discussed the brutal killing of SP Babul Akter's wife Mahmuda Khanam Mitu in Chittagong.
Some police officials at the meeting suggested that police should be “more aggressive” in tackling militancy as it has emerged as a major security threat.
Over the last two years or so, suspected militants have attacked and killed university professors, writers, publishers, secular bloggers, gay rights activists, foreigners, policemen and members of religious minorities, including Shia and Sufi Muslims, Christians and Hindus.
At least seven people have become victims of such targeted killings since May 1. They include a Christian grocer and a Hindu priest.
Contacted, IGP Shahidul Hoque told The Daily Star that law enforcers will conduct drives against the listed militants and suspects.
“We have a list of militants involved in terror incidents across the country since 2004. Many of them were arrested and charge-sheeted. Many were acquitted, granted bail or released. Besides, we have a list of suspected militants prepared by different intelligence agencies,” he added.
“Primarily, it is decided that the drive will last for the next seven days, but it may be extended.”
The IGP said police will adopt a special strategy in conducing drives in militant-prone districts.
According to sources, the districts include Gazipur, Joypurhat, Gaibandha, Bogra, Jhenidah, Natore, Sirajganj, some districts of Khulna and Chittagong divisions.
Anwar Latif Khan, additional director general (operations) of Rab, told this newspaper, “We will carry out large-scale drives in the militant-prone districts in northern area and in Khulna and Chittagong.”
Some officials, however, said police have already begun crackdowns against militants after the killing of the SP's wife.
At least nine people, including five JMB men, were killed in “shootouts” or “gunfights” with law enforcement agencies in the last three consecutive days.
“Following the directives, we have strengthened our vigilance, increased the number of checkpoints,” said a SP preferring anonymity.
“Especially, we are frisking bikers as militants and criminals in many attacks used bikes to flee away.”
Police launch drive against militants
Weeklong clampdown comes in response to recent targeted killings
Rafiul Islam
In the wake of recent spate of targeted killings, including that of SP Babul Akter's wife on Sunday, the police department is beginning a weeklong clampdown on militants across the country today.
The decision came from a meeting of top police officials with Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque in the chair at the police headquarters in the capital yesterday.
In the meeting, the IGP directed all concerned to hunt operatives of militant outfits and also deal all types of criminals with an iron fist to stop the killing spree and maintain law and order.
Officials say the anti-militancy operation is being launched as the department is convinced that militants have gained ground and that's why they could go as far as attacking a police family.
Police and the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) will carry out raids separately. If they feel necessary, they will do it jointly. Besides, members of Border Guard Bangladesh will join the drives in the bordering areas, sources in the headquarters said.
The meeting participants, with the rank of superintendent of police (SP) and above, were asked to update the lists of militants immediately in their districts, ensure strong vigilance on different religious institutions and security of foreigners and maintain a watch over tenants and strangers.
The police boss categorically said the officers-in-charge of police stations will have to take the responsibilities for any sort of violence or militant attack in their respective areas, meeting sources said.
The field-level officers have been directed to know the present whereabouts of all suspected militants in their areas, a top police officer said. “We have been also asked to make a list of militants in hiding.”
Another top official said, “Written instructions will be sent to districts regarding the drive.”
In the meeting, many of the participants admitted that law and order has deteriorated across the country and voiced concern over the rise in recent secret killings. They also discussed the brutal killing of SP Babul Akter's wife Mahmuda Khanam Mitu in Chittagong.
Some police officials at the meeting suggested that police should be “more aggressive” in tackling militancy as it has emerged as a major security threat.
Over the last two years or so, suspected militants have attacked and killed university professors, writers, publishers, secular bloggers, gay rights activists, foreigners, policemen and members of religious minorities, including Shia and Sufi Muslims, Christians and Hindus.
At least seven people have become victims of such targeted killings since May 1. They include a Christian grocer and a Hindu priest.
Contacted, IGP Shahidul Hoque told The Daily Star that law enforcers will conduct drives against the listed militants and suspects.
“We have a list of militants involved in terror incidents across the country since 2004. Many of them were arrested and charge-sheeted. Many were acquitted, granted bail or released. Besides, we have a list of suspected militants prepared by different intelligence agencies,” he added.
“Primarily, it is decided that the drive will last for the next seven days, but it may be extended.”
The IGP said police will adopt a special strategy in conducing drives in militant-prone districts.
According to sources, the districts include Gazipur, Joypurhat, Gaibandha, Bogra, Jhenidah, Natore, Sirajganj, some districts of Khulna and Chittagong divisions.
Anwar Latif Khan, additional director general (operations) of Rab, told this newspaper, “We will carry out large-scale drives in the militant-prone districts in northern area and in Khulna and Chittagong.”
Some officials, however, said police have already begun crackdowns against militants after the killing of the SP's wife.
At least nine people, including five JMB men, were killed in “shootouts” or “gunfights” with law enforcement agencies in the last three consecutive days.
“Following the directives, we have strengthened our vigilance, increased the number of checkpoints,” said a SP preferring anonymity.
“Especially, we are frisking bikers as militants and criminals in many attacks used bikes to flee away.”
May 31, 2016
May 05, 2016
India - Ghaziabad: Arrests of Sameer, Sajid a mistake, Delhi Police were wrongly informed, say families
The Indian Express
Arrests of Sameer, Sajid a mistake, Delhi Police were wrongly informed, say families
Delhi Police said that he was in touch with handler of Jaish-e-Muhammad, had made IEDs with the help of iron pipes, timers and explosive material.
Written by Abhishek Angad , Aditi Vatsa
New Delhi/ghaziabad
Published:May 5, 2016, 5:25
The family members of Sajid and Sameer say their arrest is a “mistake” by the police, who have been wrongly informed. Sajid’s family members said at about 10 pm Monday, around five police personnel entered their house in Chandbagh. The family runs a workshop on the ground floor, manufacturing women’s undergarments.
Sajid’s sister Mehzabi said, “Police ransacked the entire shop looking for something. Later, they started accumulating things like iron pipe, machine oil, spring used in the motors of the sewing machines, batteries, wall clock, air gun and an mp3 player… They made a video and we did not have any clue.”
According to Sajid’s family, at about 10.30 pm, police arrested Sajid near Fatime Masjid and presented him in front of them. “Sajid was brought in front of us for identification and later taken away… They said that he was making bombs,” said Mehzabi.
Delhi Police said that he was in touch with handler of Jaish-e-Muhammad, had made IEDs with the help of iron pipes, timers and explosive material. Police also said there was a blast at Sajid’s workshop and had injured his hand. However, his family members claimed otherwise. “Hot milk had spilled on his hand while he was having an argument with me. Later, I had put ointment… He is a very soft spoken person and never indulges in any wrong activities. He cannot be a part of this,” said Mehzabi.
A few kilometres away, in Ghaziabad’s Loni area, three sisters awaited for news of their 24-year-old brother Sameer Wednesday evening. “Our parents have been at Lodhi Colony since morning. They have not been able to meet him,” said his sister Sumaila.
A Class VIII dropout, Sameer, was picked up by Delhi Police Special Cell officers late Tuesday night. “There was a wedding in the locality. My elder cousin was standing outside the house at about 2.30-3 am when policemen approached him and asked for directions… They entered the house after that. They checked all the closets, books and every corner of the house. They confiscated Sameer’s phone and took him away. They did not give us any contact number and told us Sameer was being taken away for some laptop case. My brother does not even have a laptop,” said Sumaila.
Sameer’s family claimed for the last couple of years he had joined his father as a tailor. “To help our family, he dropped out of school and started working with my father at a sewing shop in a garments factory to ensure that his three sisters receive decent education,” said Sumaila, sitting in their one-room house. The room, approximately 10 feet X 8 feet, is shared by the family of six ? Ahmed, his parents and three sisters.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/arrests-of-sameer-sajid-a-mistake-delhi-police-were-wrongly-informed-say-families-2785077/
Arrests of Sameer, Sajid a mistake, Delhi Police were wrongly informed, say families
Delhi Police said that he was in touch with handler of Jaish-e-Muhammad, had made IEDs with the help of iron pipes, timers and explosive material.
Written by Abhishek Angad , Aditi Vatsa
New Delhi/ghaziabad
Published:May 5, 2016, 5:25
The family members of Sajid and Sameer say their arrest is a “mistake” by the police, who have been wrongly informed. Sajid’s family members said at about 10 pm Monday, around five police personnel entered their house in Chandbagh. The family runs a workshop on the ground floor, manufacturing women’s undergarments.
Sajid’s sister Mehzabi said, “Police ransacked the entire shop looking for something. Later, they started accumulating things like iron pipe, machine oil, spring used in the motors of the sewing machines, batteries, wall clock, air gun and an mp3 player… They made a video and we did not have any clue.”
According to Sajid’s family, at about 10.30 pm, police arrested Sajid near Fatime Masjid and presented him in front of them. “Sajid was brought in front of us for identification and later taken away… They said that he was making bombs,” said Mehzabi.
Delhi Police said that he was in touch with handler of Jaish-e-Muhammad, had made IEDs with the help of iron pipes, timers and explosive material. Police also said there was a blast at Sajid’s workshop and had injured his hand. However, his family members claimed otherwise. “Hot milk had spilled on his hand while he was having an argument with me. Later, I had put ointment… He is a very soft spoken person and never indulges in any wrong activities. He cannot be a part of this,” said Mehzabi.
A few kilometres away, in Ghaziabad’s Loni area, three sisters awaited for news of their 24-year-old brother Sameer Wednesday evening. “Our parents have been at Lodhi Colony since morning. They have not been able to meet him,” said his sister Sumaila.
A Class VIII dropout, Sameer, was picked up by Delhi Police Special Cell officers late Tuesday night. “There was a wedding in the locality. My elder cousin was standing outside the house at about 2.30-3 am when policemen approached him and asked for directions… They entered the house after that. They checked all the closets, books and every corner of the house. They confiscated Sameer’s phone and took him away. They did not give us any contact number and told us Sameer was being taken away for some laptop case. My brother does not even have a laptop,” said Sumaila.
Sameer’s family claimed for the last couple of years he had joined his father as a tailor. “To help our family, he dropped out of school and started working with my father at a sewing shop in a garments factory to ensure that his three sisters receive decent education,” said Sumaila, sitting in their one-room house. The room, approximately 10 feet X 8 feet, is shared by the family of six ? Ahmed, his parents and three sisters.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/arrests-of-sameer-sajid-a-mistake-delhi-police-were-wrongly-informed-say-families-2785077/
April 27, 2016
The Malegaon reminder (editorial in The Hindu, 27 april 2016)
The Hindu, April 27, 2016 00:33 IST
Editorial
The Malegaon reminder
On September 8, 2006, three bombs shattered the calm in Malegaon town on the occasion of Shab-e-Baraat, a day when believers are out and about late in the evening. A mosque was attacked, and the intent was immediately clear: to create inter-community tension. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested a group of Muslim men from Malegaon and Mumbai. This week, all nine accused have been acquitted by a special MCOCA court, which said there was not sufficient ground to proceed against them. It is, at one level, evidence of the balance of justice weighing in on the side of the innocent, though how to recompense a person for five years of wrongful confinement in jail is a question the judicial system must grapple with. In fact, one of the nine passed away last year. At another level, events over the intervening decade string together a narrative that this country has still not come to grips with. The questions it frames are best set against the chronology of events after that Shab-e-Baraat evening. As terror attacks hit the Samjhauta Express near Panipat (February 2007), the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad (May 2007), the Ajmer Dargah (October 2007), and then Malegaon once again in September 2008, it eventually became clear that the investigating agencies were on the wrong track in pursuing the accused for these incidents. This was a time when the police had also managed to crack down on the Indian Mujahideen for a series of strikes in cities across the country, but it became evident after Swami Aseemanand’s confession that fringe Hindu groups were at work doing their bit — whether in part-retaliation or only for the larger plan to polarise communities is beside the point. The eventual crackdown on both the Indian Mujahideen and these fringe Hindu groups has helped keep the peace in urban India. But the lack of haste in freeing men who were unfairly charged, and the simultaneous politicisation of cases of “Hindu” and IM terror, pose troubling questions. The most important of them is: how to restore faith in the neutrality of Indian investigation.
The events of the past decade have brought the intelligence agencies into controversies over political interference. India is an exception among mature democracies in that its intelligence agencies function without any external oversight, especially that of the elected legislature. The Malegaon acquittal, and the question of how to make amends for putting innocent men in prison for so long, should compel Parliament to demand oversight. An apolitical oversight would ensure that intelligence agencies do not get carried away by a myopic narrative of terrorism — unwittingly or by direct influence. Groups carrying out terrorist attacks are becoming ever more sophisticated in their operations and more subtle in furthering a divisive agenda. A similar sophistication to deal with the changing nature of the terrorist threat is needed. By the example of best practices elsewhere, parliamentary oversight needs to be part of the updated playbook.
Editorial
The Malegaon reminder
On September 8, 2006, three bombs shattered the calm in Malegaon town on the occasion of Shab-e-Baraat, a day when believers are out and about late in the evening. A mosque was attacked, and the intent was immediately clear: to create inter-community tension. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested a group of Muslim men from Malegaon and Mumbai. This week, all nine accused have been acquitted by a special MCOCA court, which said there was not sufficient ground to proceed against them. It is, at one level, evidence of the balance of justice weighing in on the side of the innocent, though how to recompense a person for five years of wrongful confinement in jail is a question the judicial system must grapple with. In fact, one of the nine passed away last year. At another level, events over the intervening decade string together a narrative that this country has still not come to grips with. The questions it frames are best set against the chronology of events after that Shab-e-Baraat evening. As terror attacks hit the Samjhauta Express near Panipat (February 2007), the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad (May 2007), the Ajmer Dargah (October 2007), and then Malegaon once again in September 2008, it eventually became clear that the investigating agencies were on the wrong track in pursuing the accused for these incidents. This was a time when the police had also managed to crack down on the Indian Mujahideen for a series of strikes in cities across the country, but it became evident after Swami Aseemanand’s confession that fringe Hindu groups were at work doing their bit — whether in part-retaliation or only for the larger plan to polarise communities is beside the point. The eventual crackdown on both the Indian Mujahideen and these fringe Hindu groups has helped keep the peace in urban India. But the lack of haste in freeing men who were unfairly charged, and the simultaneous politicisation of cases of “Hindu” and IM terror, pose troubling questions. The most important of them is: how to restore faith in the neutrality of Indian investigation.
The events of the past decade have brought the intelligence agencies into controversies over political interference. India is an exception among mature democracies in that its intelligence agencies function without any external oversight, especially that of the elected legislature. The Malegaon acquittal, and the question of how to make amends for putting innocent men in prison for so long, should compel Parliament to demand oversight. An apolitical oversight would ensure that intelligence agencies do not get carried away by a myopic narrative of terrorism — unwittingly or by direct influence. Groups carrying out terrorist attacks are becoming ever more sophisticated in their operations and more subtle in furthering a divisive agenda. A similar sophistication to deal with the changing nature of the terrorist threat is needed. By the example of best practices elsewhere, parliamentary oversight needs to be part of the updated playbook.
April 25, 2016
India: Why Malegaon blasts witnesses and accused are retracting statements in court (Saba Naqvi)
Why Malegaon blasts witnesses and accused are retracting statements in court
24 Apr, 2016, 04.00AM IST
By Saba Naqvi
Terrorism is far too serious an issue to be hostage to political expediency. Yet, that is precisely what is happening with cases against members of the Hindu ultra-right. Witnesses and accused in the Malegaon blasts (2006, 2008) case and the Samjhauta Express blast (2007) case have been recanting their statements. Ambitious policemen hoping to curry favour with the current regime have been coming out of the woodwork, claiming they were never comfortable with the narrative of "saffron terror".
There are several unmistakable signs that the prosecution intends to go slow till the cases altogether fall apart.
Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/51958787.cms
24 Apr, 2016, 04.00AM IST
By Saba Naqvi
Terrorism is far too serious an issue to be hostage to political expediency. Yet, that is precisely what is happening with cases against members of the Hindu ultra-right. Witnesses and accused in the Malegaon blasts (2006, 2008) case and the Samjhauta Express blast (2007) case have been recanting their statements. Ambitious policemen hoping to curry favour with the current regime have been coming out of the woodwork, claiming they were never comfortable with the narrative of "saffron terror".
There are several unmistakable signs that the prosecution intends to go slow till the cases altogether fall apart.
Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/51958787.cms
February 05, 2016
India - 2008 Malegaon blasts: NIA under fire from former prosecutor as it seeks to drop MCOCA charges
scroll.in - 4 February 2016
2008 Malegaon blasts: NIA under fire from former prosecutor as it seeks to drop MCOCA charges
But Rohini Salian is not the only one accusing the agency of 'political moves' as witnesses become crucial to the case.
"It is a
political move," former special counsel for National Investigation
Agency, Rohini Salian said, when asked for a response to the NIA
informing a special court that it intended to drop charges under the
stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against the 11
accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts.
The NIA requested the court on Tuesday that the framing of charges against the accused, including Lt Col Srikant Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, be deferred until it receives an opinion from the Attorney General whether charges under MCOCA could be dropped.
“How can they ask the Attorney General? How is he concerned with the case? The matter is sub judice (pending in court) and the case is at framing of charges. The court should decide the charges now. This is all politics. I have disassociated myself from the case now. They are cheating everyone (the society),” Salian said.
Salian, however, added that even if the stringent MCOCA charges were to be dropped, the case will not collapse and will stand on the basis of witnesses who have spoken of various conspiracy meetings.
Salian had charged last year that she had been under pressure from the NIA to go “soft” in the case since “the new government came to power” in May 2014.
'Hindu terror group'
This was the first case where a "Hindu terror group" had been named. It pertains to a blast that took place in Bhiku Chowk, Malegaon, Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008, leaving four dead and injuring more than 70 people.
The case was first investigated by the Maharashtra Anti-terrorism Squad under the late Hemant Karkare. The trail led first to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur after a golden LML Freedom bike parked outside the blast site was found to have been allegedly registered under her name. Her arrest was followed by the arrest of Colonel Purohit, who was alleged to have provided the RDX for the blasts, and retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay.
The NIA took over the case on the direction of Home Ministry on April 13, 2011. Fourteen people were chargesheeted in the case including Pragya Singh Thakur, Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Sameer Kulkarni, Rakesh Dhawade, Sudhakar Dwivedi aka Dayanand Pandey, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Pravin Takalki, Shivnarayan Kalsangra, Shyam Sahu, Ajay Rahirkar, Jagdish Mhatre. Two accused – Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange – are still absconding. The trial is yet to begin.
In April 2015, the Supreme Court said that the application of MCOCA for most of the accused, including Thakur and Purohit, in the case was “doubtful” as there was not enough evidence to show their involvement in the blasts, apart from the Malegaon one. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad had applied MCOCA in the case on the basis of “continuing unlawful activity” of accused Rakesh Dhawade, a Pune-based antique arms collector, who was also arrested for two prior terror plots in Prabhani (bomb explosion in Mohmedia Masjid, Nanalpeth, Parbhani in 2003) and Jalna (bomb explosion in Kederia masjid in 2004).
The Supreme Court ordered the special judge to consider bail applications on the merits of the case and pass appropriate orders. While three accused – Shivnarayan Kalsangra, Shyam Sahu, Ajay Rahirkar, and Jagdish Mhatre – were given bail, the trial court refused bail to the main accused, including Purohit and Thakur.
Crucial witnesses
The NIA move puts a question mark on the confessions of three accused – Sudhakar Dwivedi aka Dayanand Pandey, Pravin Takalki, and Rakesh Dhanwade – recorded under MCOCA that support the case.
“We have judgements which say that now confessions can be used even in cases under Indian Penal Code. So I think we can use them still,” said Salian. But observers point to the legal troubles ahead as the case is based mostly on circumstantial evidence, with little direct evidence to implicate the accused.
To make matters worse, the alleged bombers in the case, Ramachandra Kalsangra and Pravin Dange, still remain at large. So, while the paper trail speaks of meetings for conspiracy, there is little information about the nuts and bolts of the case – the actual bombing.
“If MCOCA goes, the benefit of confessions go away,” rued special NIA counsel, Avinash Rasal. “Since I took over, we have disposed of 24 applications of bail or discharge," he said. "Despite the Supreme Court judgement, we argued that MCOCA is applicable. And the court accepted it. We have given our 100%”.
The NIA's legal cell, Rasal said, was not sure about the applicability of MCOCA. With the accused being acquitted from the Jalna blasts case in 2012, it becomes more difficult for the prosecution to argue about "continuing illegal activity", on the basis of which MCOCA had been applied, he pointed out.
But Rasal hopes that the witnesses will support the case, unlike the 2007 Ajmer and Samjhauta Express blasts case, where many witnesses turned hostile. "The witnesses have to come and speak before the court," he said. "We can lead the horse to the water, but you cannot make it drink.”
Defence lawyers point to the lack of evidence. “There is only evidence of the meetings which were all public meetings," said Shrikant Shivade, who is representing Purohit. "None of them were closed door meetings. Besides, they were all unconnected with the blasts.”
Political move?
Naveen Chomal, the lawyer for many of the accused in the case, said that the arrested accused feel “cheated” by the right wing Bharatiya Janta Party government. In 2008, when the accused were arrested, some of them had written to LK Advani, one of the seniormost BJP leaders, about the injustice meted out to them. They had pointed out that the accused had been tortured and had been kept in illegal custody before arrest, Chomal said. “But, he (Advani) disappointed us. He mentioned our problems in one line before Parliament and let it go. He should have done something then,” Chomal said. “We do not want any favours from the government," Chomal added. "We just want them to go by the law.”
Prashant Maggu, one of the other defence lawyers in the case, who appears for three accused in the case, said that it was in the interest of the Congress government to “bring out Hindu terror.” “This was a star case for the earlier government to bring out a pattern in the country. They tried to implicate Hindu accused in Samjhauta and Ajmer blasts cases," Maggu said. "The government wanted some angle. They wanted all these cases to be interwoven, so that they can bring out Hindu terror. They started hammering all saffron clothed Sadhus and Sadhvis. The other side was pleased. But there was no factual material.”
The entire case, the defence counsel allege, was a political move. “The NIA is the same agency that withdrew the case against the 2006 Malegaon blasts case,” said Shivade. In 2011, after the NIA did not object to the bail applications of seven accused in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case, they were released on bail. The NIA had told the court that the confession of the 2007 Mecca Masjid bomb blast accused, Swami Aseemanand, had led them to review the evidence collected by the previous investigating agencies, namely the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
“They follow different standards for different sets of accused," said Sanjiv Punalekar, who appears for Sudhakar Dwivedi and Pravin Takalki. "They have been dishonest throughout. We are being used to politically please the government.”
Maggu agreed with Punalekar. “We term the witnesses hostile – like in the Ajmer and Samjhauta blasts cases. But, the statements themselves were recorded wrongly. Obviously, then they will turn hostile,” he added.
The NIA requested the court on Tuesday that the framing of charges against the accused, including Lt Col Srikant Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, be deferred until it receives an opinion from the Attorney General whether charges under MCOCA could be dropped.
“How can they ask the Attorney General? How is he concerned with the case? The matter is sub judice (pending in court) and the case is at framing of charges. The court should decide the charges now. This is all politics. I have disassociated myself from the case now. They are cheating everyone (the society),” Salian said.
Salian, however, added that even if the stringent MCOCA charges were to be dropped, the case will not collapse and will stand on the basis of witnesses who have spoken of various conspiracy meetings.
Salian had charged last year that she had been under pressure from the NIA to go “soft” in the case since “the new government came to power” in May 2014.
'Hindu terror group'
This was the first case where a "Hindu terror group" had been named. It pertains to a blast that took place in Bhiku Chowk, Malegaon, Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008, leaving four dead and injuring more than 70 people.
The case was first investigated by the Maharashtra Anti-terrorism Squad under the late Hemant Karkare. The trail led first to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur after a golden LML Freedom bike parked outside the blast site was found to have been allegedly registered under her name. Her arrest was followed by the arrest of Colonel Purohit, who was alleged to have provided the RDX for the blasts, and retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay.
The NIA took over the case on the direction of Home Ministry on April 13, 2011. Fourteen people were chargesheeted in the case including Pragya Singh Thakur, Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Sameer Kulkarni, Rakesh Dhawade, Sudhakar Dwivedi aka Dayanand Pandey, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Pravin Takalki, Shivnarayan Kalsangra, Shyam Sahu, Ajay Rahirkar, Jagdish Mhatre. Two accused – Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange – are still absconding. The trial is yet to begin.
In April 2015, the Supreme Court said that the application of MCOCA for most of the accused, including Thakur and Purohit, in the case was “doubtful” as there was not enough evidence to show their involvement in the blasts, apart from the Malegaon one. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad had applied MCOCA in the case on the basis of “continuing unlawful activity” of accused Rakesh Dhawade, a Pune-based antique arms collector, who was also arrested for two prior terror plots in Prabhani (bomb explosion in Mohmedia Masjid, Nanalpeth, Parbhani in 2003) and Jalna (bomb explosion in Kederia masjid in 2004).
The Supreme Court ordered the special judge to consider bail applications on the merits of the case and pass appropriate orders. While three accused – Shivnarayan Kalsangra, Shyam Sahu, Ajay Rahirkar, and Jagdish Mhatre – were given bail, the trial court refused bail to the main accused, including Purohit and Thakur.
Crucial witnesses
The NIA move puts a question mark on the confessions of three accused – Sudhakar Dwivedi aka Dayanand Pandey, Pravin Takalki, and Rakesh Dhanwade – recorded under MCOCA that support the case.
“We have judgements which say that now confessions can be used even in cases under Indian Penal Code. So I think we can use them still,” said Salian. But observers point to the legal troubles ahead as the case is based mostly on circumstantial evidence, with little direct evidence to implicate the accused.
To make matters worse, the alleged bombers in the case, Ramachandra Kalsangra and Pravin Dange, still remain at large. So, while the paper trail speaks of meetings for conspiracy, there is little information about the nuts and bolts of the case – the actual bombing.
“If MCOCA goes, the benefit of confessions go away,” rued special NIA counsel, Avinash Rasal. “Since I took over, we have disposed of 24 applications of bail or discharge," he said. "Despite the Supreme Court judgement, we argued that MCOCA is applicable. And the court accepted it. We have given our 100%”.
The NIA's legal cell, Rasal said, was not sure about the applicability of MCOCA. With the accused being acquitted from the Jalna blasts case in 2012, it becomes more difficult for the prosecution to argue about "continuing illegal activity", on the basis of which MCOCA had been applied, he pointed out.
But Rasal hopes that the witnesses will support the case, unlike the 2007 Ajmer and Samjhauta Express blasts case, where many witnesses turned hostile. "The witnesses have to come and speak before the court," he said. "We can lead the horse to the water, but you cannot make it drink.”
Defence lawyers point to the lack of evidence. “There is only evidence of the meetings which were all public meetings," said Shrikant Shivade, who is representing Purohit. "None of them were closed door meetings. Besides, they were all unconnected with the blasts.”
Political move?
Naveen Chomal, the lawyer for many of the accused in the case, said that the arrested accused feel “cheated” by the right wing Bharatiya Janta Party government. In 2008, when the accused were arrested, some of them had written to LK Advani, one of the seniormost BJP leaders, about the injustice meted out to them. They had pointed out that the accused had been tortured and had been kept in illegal custody before arrest, Chomal said. “But, he (Advani) disappointed us. He mentioned our problems in one line before Parliament and let it go. He should have done something then,” Chomal said. “We do not want any favours from the government," Chomal added. "We just want them to go by the law.”
Prashant Maggu, one of the other defence lawyers in the case, who appears for three accused in the case, said that it was in the interest of the Congress government to “bring out Hindu terror.” “This was a star case for the earlier government to bring out a pattern in the country. They tried to implicate Hindu accused in Samjhauta and Ajmer blasts cases," Maggu said. "The government wanted some angle. They wanted all these cases to be interwoven, so that they can bring out Hindu terror. They started hammering all saffron clothed Sadhus and Sadhvis. The other side was pleased. But there was no factual material.”
The entire case, the defence counsel allege, was a political move. “The NIA is the same agency that withdrew the case against the 2006 Malegaon blasts case,” said Shivade. In 2011, after the NIA did not object to the bail applications of seven accused in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case, they were released on bail. The NIA had told the court that the confession of the 2007 Mecca Masjid bomb blast accused, Swami Aseemanand, had led them to review the evidence collected by the previous investigating agencies, namely the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
“They follow different standards for different sets of accused," said Sanjiv Punalekar, who appears for Sudhakar Dwivedi and Pravin Takalki. "They have been dishonest throughout. We are being used to politically please the government.”
Maggu agreed with Punalekar. “We term the witnesses hostile – like in the Ajmer and Samjhauta blasts cases. But, the statements themselves were recorded wrongly. Obviously, then they will turn hostile,” he added.
September 27, 2015
India: 1000 page anti terror dossier on Far Right Sanatan Sanstha termed it a clear & present danger (Dharmendra Tiwari in Mumbai Mirror)
Mumbai Mirror
Cover Story
Maria’s dossier on Sanatan Sanstha termed it a clear & present danger
The
1,000-page dossier on Sanatan Sanstha assembled by the Anti-Terrorism
Squad in 2011 recommends that the ultraconservative Hindu nationalist
group be banned for its involvement in terror-related activities and
because it poses a major security threat to the state. The document,
which Mumbai Mirror has reviewed, also prescribes that the government
place under an interdict the Sanstha's affiliates Hindu Janjagruti
Samiti and Dharma Shakti Sena, which it says are anti-national and
imperil inter-religious harmony.
Among those named as the dominant players in the Sanstha's extremist undertakings is Rudra Patil, who is now the principal accused in the killing of the rationalist Govind Pansare, who was murdered in February this year. The dossier was compiled by Director General Home Guards, Rakesh Maria who was then the ATS chief. It was submitted to the state DGP D Sivanandan who forwarded the report to the union home ministry, headed by Sushilkumar Shinde. The home ministry is yet to act on the recommendations.
"While assembling the dossier, several aspects of the Sanstha and the activities of its sister organisations were considered," said a senior police officer who was involved in its compilation. "They included terror-related activities and the threat that these outfits posed to the state." Other than this, the document also brought to question the role played by Sanatan Prabhat, the official bulletin of the Sanstha, which publishes incendiary and provocative articles aimed specifically at those that espouse secularism, rationalism and republicanism. The dossier presents as evidence these articles, and more crucially, First Information Reports filed against Sanatan Sanstha members arrested on terrorism-related charges.
These include their involvement in the Thane-Panvel bomb blasts of 2008 - two of its members were sentenced to ten years' rigorous imprisonment in 2011 for their role in the incident. It cites the Margao blasts of 2009 - in which two Sanstha devotees were killed while on their way to plant explosive devices at a religious procession. The report also mentions the role played by the organisation in the Miraj, Sangli and Ichalkaranji riots of 2009, in which one person was killed and five people injured.
"Most of the people involved in these acts were from the coastal region of Maharashtra. In addition the group has a strong network in Pune, Sindhudurg, Kolhapur and Sangli districts of Maharashtra, apart from Goa and Karnataka," said the police officer who helped assemble the file. The ATS has suggested that the Sanstha members who carried out the Margao blasts were trained by the group at its ashrams in Sangli and Satara in 2009. The men named in this section of the report include Rudra Patil from Sangli, Sarang Akolkar from Pune and Jay Prakash alias Anna from Mangalore as the ones who "prepared Improvised Explosive Devices" and conducted "test blasts" on the hill behind the home of a man identified as Laxmikanth Naik in Talaulim village of Goa between "August 26 and 28, 2009." The National Investigation Agency has named Patil as the principal suspect in the killing of Govind Pansare. The first arrest in that case, of Sanstha member Sameer Gaikwad, led police to widen the scope of their investigation to include the outfit and its affiliates.
When reached for comment, Rakesh Maria said, "We had sent a comprehensive report to the additional chief sectary, home, UC Sarangi in 2011. He forwarded it to the central government. I am not aware of what has happened since."
In its concluding section, the dossier contains this warning: the Sanatan Sanstha and its affiliates have established a network that binds seditious groups and chauvinistic factions in Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka and if its impulses are not contained, it will present a clear and present danger to internal security. "Their evolutionary trajectory is not unlike that of the Indian Mujahideen, which emerged as a reactionary and extremist splinter faction of the Students Islamic Movement of India," the police officer who compiled the report told Mumbai Mirror.
"There is a core fanatic group within the Sanatan Sanstha which is involved in these blasts and killings. It is a small band of people and it appears Rudra Patil is the man who leads it."
Among those named as the dominant players in the Sanstha's extremist undertakings is Rudra Patil, who is now the principal accused in the killing of the rationalist Govind Pansare, who was murdered in February this year. The dossier was compiled by Director General Home Guards, Rakesh Maria who was then the ATS chief. It was submitted to the state DGP D Sivanandan who forwarded the report to the union home ministry, headed by Sushilkumar Shinde. The home ministry is yet to act on the recommendations.
"While assembling the dossier, several aspects of the Sanstha and the activities of its sister organisations were considered," said a senior police officer who was involved in its compilation. "They included terror-related activities and the threat that these outfits posed to the state." Other than this, the document also brought to question the role played by Sanatan Prabhat, the official bulletin of the Sanstha, which publishes incendiary and provocative articles aimed specifically at those that espouse secularism, rationalism and republicanism. The dossier presents as evidence these articles, and more crucially, First Information Reports filed against Sanatan Sanstha members arrested on terrorism-related charges.
These include their involvement in the Thane-Panvel bomb blasts of 2008 - two of its members were sentenced to ten years' rigorous imprisonment in 2011 for their role in the incident. It cites the Margao blasts of 2009 - in which two Sanstha devotees were killed while on their way to plant explosive devices at a religious procession. The report also mentions the role played by the organisation in the Miraj, Sangli and Ichalkaranji riots of 2009, in which one person was killed and five people injured.
"Most of the people involved in these acts were from the coastal region of Maharashtra. In addition the group has a strong network in Pune, Sindhudurg, Kolhapur and Sangli districts of Maharashtra, apart from Goa and Karnataka," said the police officer who helped assemble the file. The ATS has suggested that the Sanstha members who carried out the Margao blasts were trained by the group at its ashrams in Sangli and Satara in 2009. The men named in this section of the report include Rudra Patil from Sangli, Sarang Akolkar from Pune and Jay Prakash alias Anna from Mangalore as the ones who "prepared Improvised Explosive Devices" and conducted "test blasts" on the hill behind the home of a man identified as Laxmikanth Naik in Talaulim village of Goa between "August 26 and 28, 2009." The National Investigation Agency has named Patil as the principal suspect in the killing of Govind Pansare. The first arrest in that case, of Sanstha member Sameer Gaikwad, led police to widen the scope of their investigation to include the outfit and its affiliates.
When reached for comment, Rakesh Maria said, "We had sent a comprehensive report to the additional chief sectary, home, UC Sarangi in 2011. He forwarded it to the central government. I am not aware of what has happened since."
In its concluding section, the dossier contains this warning: the Sanatan Sanstha and its affiliates have established a network that binds seditious groups and chauvinistic factions in Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka and if its impulses are not contained, it will present a clear and present danger to internal security. "Their evolutionary trajectory is not unlike that of the Indian Mujahideen, which emerged as a reactionary and extremist splinter faction of the Students Islamic Movement of India," the police officer who compiled the report told Mumbai Mirror.
"There is a core fanatic group within the Sanatan Sanstha which is involved in these blasts and killings. It is a small band of people and it appears Rudra Patil is the man who leads it."
September 08, 2014
Thoughtful Counter Terror Message from Mumbai - Javed Anand
http://www.asianage.com/columnists/message-mumbai-909
Asian Age
EDITORIAL PAGE
08 September 2014
Message from Mumbai
Javed Anand
According to Ribeiro, never confuse the terrorists with the community whose cause they claim to champion. The challenge lies in winning the community’s trust and thus isolating the terrorists.
Until recently we only needed to worry about Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the agency responsible for funding, training, arming and showing the terror path to a small number of Indian Muslims.
Now we also need to think of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (currently in control of large parts of Iraq and Syria) and the newly launched chapter of the Al Qaeda in the Indian sub-continent (AQIS).
First thing on Friday morning, many Muslims from Mumbai, me included, received a text message from businessman and social activist, Farid Batatawala. Here it is with a few spellings corrected: “Ayman al-Zawahiri (Al Qaeda leader) is a big shaitan (devil), and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (leader of the ISIS, self-proclaimed Caliph of all Muslims) is a follower of that shaitan. They are all agents of America and Israel. Because they want to sell their arms, America and Israel are both trying to disturb the peace in India. But inshallah India will become a superpower within few years”.
Other Muslim organisations and individuals have been as prompt in condemning Al Qaeda’s intrusion into India, without any reference to the conspiracy theory. The President of the All-India Muslim Majlise Mushawarat, Dr Zafrul Islam Khan, has declared that “Indian Muslims would fight Al Qaeda if it tried to enter India” while the Khudai Khidmatgar has called upon them to “chase away any dubious character trying to spread Al Qaeda ideas.” And Maulana Daryabadi, general secretary, All-India Ulema Council has commented that “secular Hindus” are more than sufficient allies for India’s minorities. The ISIS and Al Qaeda are part of the problem, not the solution, for Indian Muslims.
Nonetheless, perhaps we should all be chanting inshallah now. With a multitude of “jihadi” extremists hallucinating about a new Caliphate, Islamic State and Sharia law on one hand and the increasingly belligerent crusaders for a “Hindu Rashtra” on the other, it looks like India could do with some divine intervention from Ishwar-Allah.
It is highly doubtful whether the multiple entrants in competitive criminality will, in itself, lead to a significant surge in the number of Muslim youth ready to be recruited for killing innocents, or dying, in the name of Islam. But that’s no good reason for complacency. In the war for control of limited toxic territory, none can rule out attempts at “spectacular terror” to “outshine” rival seekers of foot soldiers. Were such a heinous crime to be successfully executed, the communal cauldron could boil over which, in turn, could create future potential recruits.
To break this vicious cycle, I believe the country has something to learn from two retired IPS officers from the Maharashtra cadre. No doubt there are many, many other serving and retired officers in khaki of whom secular India should be proud of. My reason for naming just two of them is because of what I have learnt from them through personal engagement over the years these lessons have a direct bearing on the issue at hand.
Julio Ribeiro, who was earlier police commissioner, Mumbai, was handpicked by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and deputed as DGP Punjab to tackle the Khalistani challenge in the state in the 1980s. To this day, Ribeiro attributes his success in dealing with the extremist menace in Punjab to a simple policy: Never confuse the terrorists with the community whose cause they claim to be championing. The greatest challenge in fighting terrorism lies in winning over the trust of the community and thus isolating the terrorists. It’s evident from the experience of other countries, which also tells us that a bullets-alone approach is never the answer to terrorism.
Satish Sahney was made police commissioner of Mumbai (it was Bombay then) in November 1993. Below the surface calm then lay a wounded metropolis: because of the December 1992-93 Shiv Sena led anti-Muslim pogrom followed by the serial bomb blasts engineered by Dawood Ibrahim and his accomplices in March 1993. As was widely acknowledged at the time, partisan police conduct during the communal carnage had led to a complete breakdown of communication between the city’s Muslims and the law-enforcement machinery.
Given this very unhappy state of affairs, Sahney single-mindedly embarked on the task of damage repair. Over several months in 1994, he along with a dozen or more of his top officers were often to be found inside a Muslim mohalla, seated among a large gathering of Muslim men and women. Mostly they listened, as account after painful account was narrated, from mohalla after mohalla, about how the police did nothing or acted in blatant communal fashion when Muslims turned to them for security.
There was anger, there was anguish, there was shouting and screaming, there was sobbing and crying. At times the meeting continued for several hours. In the process there was healing too. Sahney’s “this should never have happened, never will” approach helped re-establish communication between Muslims and the police.
Perhaps there is something the Indian police could learn from this. But I recall one such meeting with Sahney and his officers from which the Muslim community too has something to learn. In the midst of a meeting, a journalist-activist (incidentally a non-Muslim) alleged that over 70-80 per cent of Bombay’s police force was communal. This was hotly denied by some of the police officers present and an argument erupted. Minutes later, the meeting was brought back to order with a telling comment from the soft-spoken Sahney. “It is not a question of numbers. For me, as police commissioner of the city and for the police force under me, it should be a matter of great shame if even one police man or woman is communal.” Call it “zero tolerance” policy.
For Muslims, the takeaway from Sahney’s comment should be this: It is not a question of how many Muslim youth have taken to terrorism. Since it is oft reiterated that Islam strictly prohibits the killing of even one innocent person, it should be a matter of great shame for all maulanas, muftis and maulvis if even one Muslim is involved in a terror act. Who would pretend there is none?
If the police were to listen to voices such as that of Ribeiro and Sahney, if Muslims were to adapt the latter’s “zero tolerance” policy to their own context, India would be better placed to face the growing terror threat.
The writer is co-editor of Communalism Combat and general
secretary, Muslims for Secular Democracy
Asian Age
EDITORIAL PAGE
08 September 2014
Message from Mumbai
Javed Anand
According to Ribeiro, never confuse the terrorists with the community whose cause they claim to champion. The challenge lies in winning the community’s trust and thus isolating the terrorists.
Until recently we only needed to worry about Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the agency responsible for funding, training, arming and showing the terror path to a small number of Indian Muslims.
Now we also need to think of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (currently in control of large parts of Iraq and Syria) and the newly launched chapter of the Al Qaeda in the Indian sub-continent (AQIS).
First thing on Friday morning, many Muslims from Mumbai, me included, received a text message from businessman and social activist, Farid Batatawala. Here it is with a few spellings corrected: “Ayman al-Zawahiri (Al Qaeda leader) is a big shaitan (devil), and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (leader of the ISIS, self-proclaimed Caliph of all Muslims) is a follower of that shaitan. They are all agents of America and Israel. Because they want to sell their arms, America and Israel are both trying to disturb the peace in India. But inshallah India will become a superpower within few years”.
Other Muslim organisations and individuals have been as prompt in condemning Al Qaeda’s intrusion into India, without any reference to the conspiracy theory. The President of the All-India Muslim Majlise Mushawarat, Dr Zafrul Islam Khan, has declared that “Indian Muslims would fight Al Qaeda if it tried to enter India” while the Khudai Khidmatgar has called upon them to “chase away any dubious character trying to spread Al Qaeda ideas.” And Maulana Daryabadi, general secretary, All-India Ulema Council has commented that “secular Hindus” are more than sufficient allies for India’s minorities. The ISIS and Al Qaeda are part of the problem, not the solution, for Indian Muslims.
Nonetheless, perhaps we should all be chanting inshallah now. With a multitude of “jihadi” extremists hallucinating about a new Caliphate, Islamic State and Sharia law on one hand and the increasingly belligerent crusaders for a “Hindu Rashtra” on the other, it looks like India could do with some divine intervention from Ishwar-Allah.
It is highly doubtful whether the multiple entrants in competitive criminality will, in itself, lead to a significant surge in the number of Muslim youth ready to be recruited for killing innocents, or dying, in the name of Islam. But that’s no good reason for complacency. In the war for control of limited toxic territory, none can rule out attempts at “spectacular terror” to “outshine” rival seekers of foot soldiers. Were such a heinous crime to be successfully executed, the communal cauldron could boil over which, in turn, could create future potential recruits.
To break this vicious cycle, I believe the country has something to learn from two retired IPS officers from the Maharashtra cadre. No doubt there are many, many other serving and retired officers in khaki of whom secular India should be proud of. My reason for naming just two of them is because of what I have learnt from them through personal engagement over the years these lessons have a direct bearing on the issue at hand.
Julio Ribeiro, who was earlier police commissioner, Mumbai, was handpicked by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and deputed as DGP Punjab to tackle the Khalistani challenge in the state in the 1980s. To this day, Ribeiro attributes his success in dealing with the extremist menace in Punjab to a simple policy: Never confuse the terrorists with the community whose cause they claim to be championing. The greatest challenge in fighting terrorism lies in winning over the trust of the community and thus isolating the terrorists. It’s evident from the experience of other countries, which also tells us that a bullets-alone approach is never the answer to terrorism.
Satish Sahney was made police commissioner of Mumbai (it was Bombay then) in November 1993. Below the surface calm then lay a wounded metropolis: because of the December 1992-93 Shiv Sena led anti-Muslim pogrom followed by the serial bomb blasts engineered by Dawood Ibrahim and his accomplices in March 1993. As was widely acknowledged at the time, partisan police conduct during the communal carnage had led to a complete breakdown of communication between the city’s Muslims and the law-enforcement machinery.
Given this very unhappy state of affairs, Sahney single-mindedly embarked on the task of damage repair. Over several months in 1994, he along with a dozen or more of his top officers were often to be found inside a Muslim mohalla, seated among a large gathering of Muslim men and women. Mostly they listened, as account after painful account was narrated, from mohalla after mohalla, about how the police did nothing or acted in blatant communal fashion when Muslims turned to them for security.
There was anger, there was anguish, there was shouting and screaming, there was sobbing and crying. At times the meeting continued for several hours. In the process there was healing too. Sahney’s “this should never have happened, never will” approach helped re-establish communication between Muslims and the police.
Perhaps there is something the Indian police could learn from this. But I recall one such meeting with Sahney and his officers from which the Muslim community too has something to learn. In the midst of a meeting, a journalist-activist (incidentally a non-Muslim) alleged that over 70-80 per cent of Bombay’s police force was communal. This was hotly denied by some of the police officers present and an argument erupted. Minutes later, the meeting was brought back to order with a telling comment from the soft-spoken Sahney. “It is not a question of numbers. For me, as police commissioner of the city and for the police force under me, it should be a matter of great shame if even one police man or woman is communal.” Call it “zero tolerance” policy.
For Muslims, the takeaway from Sahney’s comment should be this: It is not a question of how many Muslim youth have taken to terrorism. Since it is oft reiterated that Islam strictly prohibits the killing of even one innocent person, it should be a matter of great shame for all maulanas, muftis and maulvis if even one Muslim is involved in a terror act. Who would pretend there is none?
If the police were to listen to voices such as that of Ribeiro and Sahney, if Muslims were to adapt the latter’s “zero tolerance” policy to their own context, India would be better placed to face the growing terror threat.
The writer is co-editor of Communalism Combat and general
secretary, Muslims for Secular Democracy
October 05, 2013
India: With friends such as these, who needs enemies? | Jyoti Punwani
Daily News and Analysis
With friends such as these, who needs enemies?
Wednesday, Oct 2, 2013, 8:18 IST | Agency: DNA
Jyoti Punwani
It’s not easy being a Muslim in India at the best of times. But when elections draw near, it’s hell. Out to prove their concern for you, politicians say and do things that make you the target of shrill, drummed-up attacks, which may not be only verbal. Muzaffarnagar, where rabble-rousing and manipulations by politicians left 49 dead and 43,000 homeless, is still fresh in our minds.
A conservative estimate says Muslims were 60 per cent of the victims. Now comes Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s letter to Chief Ministers asking them to ensure that Muslims are not wrongly arrested in terror cases, that those framed are compensated and rehabilitated, and the policemen who arrest them are punished.
This statement is an admission that Muslims have been wrongly arrested for terrorist crimes so often that the Union Home Minister has had to acknowledge this publicly. This is a reality that cannot be wished away by the BJP’s hysterical reaction.
However, this has been a reality for a long time now. 2008 was when the country realized what Muslims already knew — that they were being arrested for crimes committed by others. That was when then Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare arrested Lt Col Shrikant Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya and others from the little-known organization Abhinav Bharat, for the 2008 Malegaon blasts. The reported transcripts of meetings and phone conversations between the accused left nothing to the imagination.
Even before this, in 2006, 21 Hindus were arrested for making bombs in an RSS member’s house in Nanded, but the leads provided by that investigation were not followed up, though Shinde’s party ruled Maharashtra. Then came Swami Aseemanand’s confessions in 2010 in front of two magistrates, that his associates were involved in the Malegaon, Hyderabad and Ajmer blasts of 2006 and 2007, in which the targets were all Muslim.
So at least for five years, the Congress-run Central government has known that Muslims are being wrongly arrested. Did Shinde’s predecessor P Chidambaram do anything about it? On the contrary. Muslims wrongly arrested for the 2006 Malegaon blasts, already languishing in jail for four years, had to wait another year after Aseemanand’s confession, before the CBI and NIA decided not to oppose their bail applications. Both the agencies report to the Centre.
Shinde was Home Minister when the Jamia Milia teachers released a report on 16 terror cases in which Muslims, mostly Kashmiris, had been framed by the Delhi Police Special Cell. Where’s the compensation? Leave aside an inquiry against the policemen concerned (despite the courts’ strictures against them), one of them was even awarded the President’s Gold Medal this year!
It’s obvious therefore, where Shinde’s sudden concern for innocent Muslims is coming from. And that brings us to what’s left unsaid in his statement. Is the Home Minister implying that the police need not be told not to wrongly arrest non-Muslims for terrorist acts? Of course, such a possibility is remote, given our police’s reluctance to arrest Hindutva offenders even when their offence is committed in front of TV cameras, be it in Muzaffarnagar, Mumbai, Kandhamal (2008) or Jammu during the 2008 Amarnath Yatra agitation. But what about non-religious ‘’terror’’? An RTI inquiry by Swami Agnivesh reveals that 1,018 tribals are awaiting trial in just three Chhattisgarh jails as suspected Maoists.
Many of them neither know why they are inside, nor can they afford lawyers. Is their pathetic condition not worth the Home Minister’s attention — despite Chhattisgarh being a BJP-ruled state — because electorally, they don’t count?
The author is a Mumbai-based freelance journalist
With friends such as these, who needs enemies?
Wednesday, Oct 2, 2013, 8:18 IST | Agency: DNA
Jyoti Punwani
It’s not easy being a Muslim in India at the best of times. But when elections draw near, it’s hell. Out to prove their concern for you, politicians say and do things that make you the target of shrill, drummed-up attacks, which may not be only verbal. Muzaffarnagar, where rabble-rousing and manipulations by politicians left 49 dead and 43,000 homeless, is still fresh in our minds.
A conservative estimate says Muslims were 60 per cent of the victims. Now comes Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s letter to Chief Ministers asking them to ensure that Muslims are not wrongly arrested in terror cases, that those framed are compensated and rehabilitated, and the policemen who arrest them are punished.
This statement is an admission that Muslims have been wrongly arrested for terrorist crimes so often that the Union Home Minister has had to acknowledge this publicly. This is a reality that cannot be wished away by the BJP’s hysterical reaction.
However, this has been a reality for a long time now. 2008 was when the country realized what Muslims already knew — that they were being arrested for crimes committed by others. That was when then Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare arrested Lt Col Shrikant Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya and others from the little-known organization Abhinav Bharat, for the 2008 Malegaon blasts. The reported transcripts of meetings and phone conversations between the accused left nothing to the imagination.
Even before this, in 2006, 21 Hindus were arrested for making bombs in an RSS member’s house in Nanded, but the leads provided by that investigation were not followed up, though Shinde’s party ruled Maharashtra. Then came Swami Aseemanand’s confessions in 2010 in front of two magistrates, that his associates were involved in the Malegaon, Hyderabad and Ajmer blasts of 2006 and 2007, in which the targets were all Muslim.
So at least for five years, the Congress-run Central government has known that Muslims are being wrongly arrested. Did Shinde’s predecessor P Chidambaram do anything about it? On the contrary. Muslims wrongly arrested for the 2006 Malegaon blasts, already languishing in jail for four years, had to wait another year after Aseemanand’s confession, before the CBI and NIA decided not to oppose their bail applications. Both the agencies report to the Centre.
Shinde was Home Minister when the Jamia Milia teachers released a report on 16 terror cases in which Muslims, mostly Kashmiris, had been framed by the Delhi Police Special Cell. Where’s the compensation? Leave aside an inquiry against the policemen concerned (despite the courts’ strictures against them), one of them was even awarded the President’s Gold Medal this year!
It’s obvious therefore, where Shinde’s sudden concern for innocent Muslims is coming from. And that brings us to what’s left unsaid in his statement. Is the Home Minister implying that the police need not be told not to wrongly arrest non-Muslims for terrorist acts? Of course, such a possibility is remote, given our police’s reluctance to arrest Hindutva offenders even when their offence is committed in front of TV cameras, be it in Muzaffarnagar, Mumbai, Kandhamal (2008) or Jammu during the 2008 Amarnath Yatra agitation. But what about non-religious ‘’terror’’? An RTI inquiry by Swami Agnivesh reveals that 1,018 tribals are awaiting trial in just three Chhattisgarh jails as suspected Maoists.
Many of them neither know why they are inside, nor can they afford lawyers. Is their pathetic condition not worth the Home Minister’s attention — despite Chhattisgarh being a BJP-ruled state — because electorally, they don’t count?
The author is a Mumbai-based freelance journalist
September 26, 2013
India: Five years after being acquitted in the Mecca Masjid bomb blast case ... treated as outcastes
The Hindu
Hyderabad, September 26, 2013
Treated as outcastes and looked at with suspicion
Five years after being acquitted in the Mecca Masjid bomb blast case, life continues to be a struggle for Mohd. Abdul Raheem (32), now a grocery store owner. The trader was arrested in the Mecca Masjid blast case in 2007 and had to spend nearly six months in prison before being released on bail.
At the time of the arrest, this Malakpet resident was driving auto rickshaw for a living. He was one among the several youth from Old City who faced charges of criminal conspiracy in the Mecca Masjid blast case. Memories of the ordeal are still etched freshly in Rahim’s mind.
“I was kept in a farm house and tortured for days, and later police presented me before a court and sent me to jail where I spent six months,” he recalls.
Those six months changed Raheem’s life forever.
“After my release, my family members became social outcasts. Fearing police, relatives, friends and neighbours avoided us. Strangers looked at us with suspicion, and I became an outsider in my own neighbourhood. I had no option but to shift to a new place to start life afresh,” Raheem, now father of a two-year-old boy, says.
Raheem lived in the Malakpet area where terrorist Shahid Bilal resided. The trader maintains that like any other person in the neighbourhood, he also knew Shahid Bilal.
“Police picked me up on mere suspicion. They could have released me after interrogation, but they jailed me, which ruined my life,” he says. On the recommendations of the National Commission for Minorities, the government had offered Rs. 3 lakh as compensation to those who were falsely implicated, arrested and jailed.
“Can the government wash off its hands by paying some money? If it was not for my family’s deteriorating financial condition after my arrest, I would have rejected the compensation. If the government is really sincere, it should punish the guilty police officials,” he demanded.
It was March, 2008, and Moutasim Billa recalls stepping out of his home when a police team in plainclothes dragged him into a waiting four-wheeler and sped away. The M.Tech student maintains that for the next few days he was subjected to third degree torture at a farm house on the city outskirts.
“Police wanted me to confess that I was involved in the Mecca Masjid blast. How can I do it when I did not have any role in it?” the second year M. Tech student asks. At the time of the arrest, Moutasim was pursuing B-Tech degree.
“I spent 100 days in jail before being granted bail by the court. I lost one full academic year due to this, and my family was shattered,” he recalls. The 27-year-old has been steadfast in rejecting the compensation of the government.
“The compensation was a bribe to keep my mouth shut. Why can’t the government punish the guilty police officials for foisting a false case? he claimed. Frightened by the possibility of police targeting his friends, Moutasim, these days, has become a social recluse. “I do not meet people frequently or make friends, because if I do, then they could be targeted by police,” he says.
Hyderabad, September 26, 2013
Treated as outcastes and looked at with suspicion
Five years after being acquitted in the Mecca Masjid bomb blast case, life continues to be a struggle for Mohd. Abdul Raheem (32), now a grocery store owner. The trader was arrested in the Mecca Masjid blast case in 2007 and had to spend nearly six months in prison before being released on bail.
At the time of the arrest, this Malakpet resident was driving auto rickshaw for a living. He was one among the several youth from Old City who faced charges of criminal conspiracy in the Mecca Masjid blast case. Memories of the ordeal are still etched freshly in Rahim’s mind.
“I was kept in a farm house and tortured for days, and later police presented me before a court and sent me to jail where I spent six months,” he recalls.
Those six months changed Raheem’s life forever.
“After my release, my family members became social outcasts. Fearing police, relatives, friends and neighbours avoided us. Strangers looked at us with suspicion, and I became an outsider in my own neighbourhood. I had no option but to shift to a new place to start life afresh,” Raheem, now father of a two-year-old boy, says.
Raheem lived in the Malakpet area where terrorist Shahid Bilal resided. The trader maintains that like any other person in the neighbourhood, he also knew Shahid Bilal.
“Police picked me up on mere suspicion. They could have released me after interrogation, but they jailed me, which ruined my life,” he says. On the recommendations of the National Commission for Minorities, the government had offered Rs. 3 lakh as compensation to those who were falsely implicated, arrested and jailed.
“Can the government wash off its hands by paying some money? If it was not for my family’s deteriorating financial condition after my arrest, I would have rejected the compensation. If the government is really sincere, it should punish the guilty police officials,” he demanded.
It was March, 2008, and Moutasim Billa recalls stepping out of his home when a police team in plainclothes dragged him into a waiting four-wheeler and sped away. The M.Tech student maintains that for the next few days he was subjected to third degree torture at a farm house on the city outskirts.
“Police wanted me to confess that I was involved in the Mecca Masjid blast. How can I do it when I did not have any role in it?” the second year M. Tech student asks. At the time of the arrest, Moutasim was pursuing B-Tech degree.
“I spent 100 days in jail before being granted bail by the court. I lost one full academic year due to this, and my family was shattered,” he recalls. The 27-year-old has been steadfast in rejecting the compensation of the government.
“The compensation was a bribe to keep my mouth shut. Why can’t the government punish the guilty police officials for foisting a false case? he claimed. Frightened by the possibility of police targeting his friends, Moutasim, these days, has become a social recluse. “I do not meet people frequently or make friends, because if I do, then they could be targeted by police,” he says.
June 28, 2013
India: Prosecute ATS for fabricated evidence and falsely accusing innocents in Malegaon blasts case
Mumbai Mirror | Jun 26, 2013
Prosecute ATS for Malegaon
by Yug Mohit Chaudhry
NIA investigation confirms ACP Shengal falsely accused nine innocent men and fabricated evidence.
Friday, September 8, 2006: It was one of the holiest days in the Muslim calendar --Shab-e-Barat - when bombs exploded at the Malegaon Chowk, and in a mosquecemetery compound, during the afternoon prayers.
Thirty-one people were killed and 300 suffered injuries in the attacks that visibly targeted Muslims, but the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), in a predetermined manner, immediately blamed Muslim terrorists and arrested nine from the community.
This case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which, while investigating the Samjhauta Express blast, had uncovered evidence contradicting the ATS claims.
After reinvestigating the Malegaon case, the NIA has confirmed that the ATS fabricated evidence against the accused, and that a Hindu terrorist group had perpetrated the blasts. Had the investigating officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kisan Shengal, succeeded in pulling off this miscarriage of justice, nine innocent people would have possibly been sentenced to death as terrorists, and their families tarnished with this stigma forever.
According to the ATS, the blasts were perpetrated by Noorul Huda, Shabbir Masiullah, Raees Mansuri, Dr. Salman Aimi, Dr. Farogh Magdumi, Mohammed Ali Shaikh, Asif Khan, Mohammed Zahid Ansari and Abrar Ahmed. The ATS said that some of them had trained in Pakistani camps and that all had conspired to:
(a) Wage war against the government.
(b) Terrorize people through wanton killing and bomb blasts.
(c) Incite communal riots and disrupt public order.
(d) Indoctrinate Muslims into terrorist and secessionist ideology.
(e) Avail assistance from Pakistani terrorists.
The NIA's chargesheet debunks these claims comprehensively.
It states that:
(a) ATS witnesses for the alleged seizure of the RDX from the accused denied witnessing these events;
(b) An ATS witness to the alleged seizure of the fake bomb was also shown by the ATS as being present elsewhere simultaneously for the seizure of the deceased's clothes.
(c) The ATS's key witness denied seeing the accused making the bomb and said that "his statement was recorded under duress".
(d) An accused, who the ATS claimed had planted a bomb, was in Fulsawangi about 480 kms away at that time, and another who, the ATS claimed procured explosives, sheltered Pakistani terrorists, assembled the bomb, etc, was in jail.
(e) The blasts were carried outby Lokesh Sharma and others in furtherance of a larger terror conspiracy.
The ATS's false accusations, drawing on stock communal stereotypes equating Indian Muslims with anti-national activity, terrorism and Pakistan, display an institutional bias and communal antipathy unbecoming a secular state.
They also manifest disrespect for truth and the judicial process, which, in a police force, is extremely worrying since evidence is easily fabricated and lives hang in the balance.
Investigation, especially in terrorist cases, must be scrupulously honest, not merely because of accused's rights, but also for our own safety: we have to be sure that the real culprits have been arrested and cannot re-offend. The NIA investigation confirms the belief that even in serious cases evidence is often fabricated, witness testimony coerced, incriminating articles planted, and innocent people falsely accused. Consequently, the administration of justice is brought into disrepute when judicial verdicts are believed to be based on tainted evidence. This has happened in numerous high profile cases, including the Parliament attack case.
Dishonest investigation, custodial torture and extra-judicial killings by the police are endemic in India and carried out with impunity: no policeman has been convicted for these offences in Maharashtra for over 15 years.
Had a few rogue officers been punished, the ATS may not have dared to fabricate evidence in such an important case. However, courts and governments have routinely condoned these excesses and we have become inured. The Malegaon case, an egregious example, must be the starting point where we show our intolerance for such brazen lawlessness by law enforcers and make an example of them to deter others.
The NIA's investigation establishes unequivocally that nine persons, who spent six years in custody, were innocent and were framed by ACP Shengal on a terrorist charge.
He planted RDX on them from a private stash, coerced a corroborative statement from a bogus witness and extorted fictitious confessions from them, which collectively would have sufficed to have them convicted and sent to the gallows. They are free today only because the NIA accidentally chanced upon evidence of their innocence. This must never be allowed to recur.
ACP Shengal must be suspended forthwith, and departmental and criminal proceedings initiated against him for making false accusations, fabricating evidence on a capital charge and coercing false testimony punishable under sections 193-195A, 197, 199, 211, 220 Indian Penal Code. If he is not prosecuted, other officers will do the same with impunity, and people will lose faith in the administration of justice.
For all our sakes, and to maintain the integrity of democratic institutions, it is imperative that the government prosecutes Shengal in a manner that inspires confidence.
Prosecute ATS for Malegaon
by Yug Mohit Chaudhry
NIA investigation confirms ACP Shengal falsely accused nine innocent men and fabricated evidence.
Friday, September 8, 2006: It was one of the holiest days in the Muslim calendar --Shab-e-Barat - when bombs exploded at the Malegaon Chowk, and in a mosquecemetery compound, during the afternoon prayers.
Thirty-one people were killed and 300 suffered injuries in the attacks that visibly targeted Muslims, but the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), in a predetermined manner, immediately blamed Muslim terrorists and arrested nine from the community.
This case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which, while investigating the Samjhauta Express blast, had uncovered evidence contradicting the ATS claims.
After reinvestigating the Malegaon case, the NIA has confirmed that the ATS fabricated evidence against the accused, and that a Hindu terrorist group had perpetrated the blasts. Had the investigating officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kisan Shengal, succeeded in pulling off this miscarriage of justice, nine innocent people would have possibly been sentenced to death as terrorists, and their families tarnished with this stigma forever.
According to the ATS, the blasts were perpetrated by Noorul Huda, Shabbir Masiullah, Raees Mansuri, Dr. Salman Aimi, Dr. Farogh Magdumi, Mohammed Ali Shaikh, Asif Khan, Mohammed Zahid Ansari and Abrar Ahmed. The ATS said that some of them had trained in Pakistani camps and that all had conspired to:
(a) Wage war against the government.
(b) Terrorize people through wanton killing and bomb blasts.
(c) Incite communal riots and disrupt public order.
(d) Indoctrinate Muslims into terrorist and secessionist ideology.
(e) Avail assistance from Pakistani terrorists.
The NIA's chargesheet debunks these claims comprehensively.
It states that:
(a) ATS witnesses for the alleged seizure of the RDX from the accused denied witnessing these events;
(b) An ATS witness to the alleged seizure of the fake bomb was also shown by the ATS as being present elsewhere simultaneously for the seizure of the deceased's clothes.
(c) The ATS's key witness denied seeing the accused making the bomb and said that "his statement was recorded under duress".
(d) An accused, who the ATS claimed had planted a bomb, was in Fulsawangi about 480 kms away at that time, and another who, the ATS claimed procured explosives, sheltered Pakistani terrorists, assembled the bomb, etc, was in jail.
(e) The blasts were carried outby Lokesh Sharma and others in furtherance of a larger terror conspiracy.
The ATS's false accusations, drawing on stock communal stereotypes equating Indian Muslims with anti-national activity, terrorism and Pakistan, display an institutional bias and communal antipathy unbecoming a secular state.
They also manifest disrespect for truth and the judicial process, which, in a police force, is extremely worrying since evidence is easily fabricated and lives hang in the balance.
Investigation, especially in terrorist cases, must be scrupulously honest, not merely because of accused's rights, but also for our own safety: we have to be sure that the real culprits have been arrested and cannot re-offend. The NIA investigation confirms the belief that even in serious cases evidence is often fabricated, witness testimony coerced, incriminating articles planted, and innocent people falsely accused. Consequently, the administration of justice is brought into disrepute when judicial verdicts are believed to be based on tainted evidence. This has happened in numerous high profile cases, including the Parliament attack case.
Dishonest investigation, custodial torture and extra-judicial killings by the police are endemic in India and carried out with impunity: no policeman has been convicted for these offences in Maharashtra for over 15 years.
Had a few rogue officers been punished, the ATS may not have dared to fabricate evidence in such an important case. However, courts and governments have routinely condoned these excesses and we have become inured. The Malegaon case, an egregious example, must be the starting point where we show our intolerance for such brazen lawlessness by law enforcers and make an example of them to deter others.
The NIA's investigation establishes unequivocally that nine persons, who spent six years in custody, were innocent and were framed by ACP Shengal on a terrorist charge.
He planted RDX on them from a private stash, coerced a corroborative statement from a bogus witness and extorted fictitious confessions from them, which collectively would have sufficed to have them convicted and sent to the gallows. They are free today only because the NIA accidentally chanced upon evidence of their innocence. This must never be allowed to recur.
ACP Shengal must be suspended forthwith, and departmental and criminal proceedings initiated against him for making false accusations, fabricating evidence on a capital charge and coercing false testimony punishable under sections 193-195A, 197, 199, 211, 220 Indian Penal Code. If he is not prosecuted, other officers will do the same with impunity, and people will lose faith in the administration of justice.
For all our sakes, and to maintain the integrity of democratic institutions, it is imperative that the government prosecutes Shengal in a manner that inspires confidence.
June 15, 2013
Whither Justice-Fabricated cases and the State: Ram Puniyani
Whither Justice: Fabricated Cases and State
Ram Puniyani
Rihai Manch, a forum for getting justice to the falsely implicated youth in the cases of acts of terror has currently (June 2013), a protest Dharna (sit in) to demand the arrest of police and IB officials responsible for the death of Maulana Khalid Mujahid, to implement the R.D. Nimesh Commission report and to release the innocent Muslim youth implicated in acts of terror. This campaign is getting broader support from more human rights groups and affected community. This is the major effort by a civic society group to democratically protest against the insensitive and biased state machinery, to pressurize it to come to the path of justice.
The Samajvadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav Government in UP, had earlier claimed to be the major champion of the cause of Muslims, to the extent that the main leader of this party Mulayam Singh Yadav was derogatorily called Mulla Mulayam. But as he came to power last time also during his regime many a communal episodes, violence, took place under the very nose of the Government. Currently also Akhilesh Yadav‘s regime is marked by over 27 episodes of major riots. On the top of that this Government in its election promise had said that the innocents, implicated in the acts of terror will be released. On the contrary, the death of Maulana Khalid Mujahid in the police custody has raised sufficient doubts about the intentions of the Government. Even R.D. Nimesh Commission report was kept in the cold storage from last one year, and now when it has been released finally, the government is refraining from taking action, hiding behind the argument that it will be discussed in future Assembly session before action is taken on the report. As such Government has full prerogative to take action at Cabinet level. People fear that this commission report may also face the same fate as the other commission reports, which are generally put on the backburner or put in the cold storage.
Ashsish Khaitan, one of the journalists with dogged determination, sensitivity and honesty, has floated a portal, Gulail (Slingshot) to highlight the investigative reports related to the framing of innocents by authorities. Many an officers have falsely implicated innocents, despite knowing the truth, to enhance their own career prospects or to due to the biases which have gripped the large sections of the law enforcement agencies. These agencies regard that only youth from one religious community are responsible for the acts of terror. Khiatan also opines that putting forward the truth of such cases is also not of much use; as in such cases reports of honest investigations are overshadowed by the biased reporting and opinions in the print, T.V. and social media. He is pinning his hopes on judiciary and the people’s campaigns for getting justice. The ongoing dharna in UP is drawing the attention of the social groups and is being sustained for over two weeks by the social activists and the pained and anguished community, whose young ones’ are being incarcerated and have to suffer not only the future career prospects but have also to get the blame, which ostracize them from social life. In this direction various efforts have been undertaken in the past but after temporary response and restraint the investigation agencies lapse in to their usual prejudiced actions.
Not only can this be seen in the case of UP, but overall one sees the wide gulf between the promises and actual actions of the so called ‘secular parties’. While in Maharashtra the Congress coalition came to power with the promise of implementing Shrikrishna Commission report of 92-93 riots, after coming to power on this promise it put forward the usual excuses and the guilty police officers and political leadership continued to be in their positions of power despite sufficient proof of their involvement in instigating and participating in the riots., As for as justice to the victims and action against the guilty is concerned Samajvadi Party seems to be no different. The R.D. Nimesh Commission has given the full truth based on which it can proceed to punish the guilty police officers, but that’s what is being avoided. The credentials of so called secular parties are more are less similar, be it the Congress or be it the Samajvadi Party, they have very opportunistic attitude as far as the justice to minorities is concerned. While communal parties are out to do away with the rights of minorities and deny them justice through and through, these so called secular parties have dual character. They promise and are unable to deliver as their calculations are built around the vote bank politics.
This is due to multiple factors. One is that these supposedly secular parties are also being trapped by the considerations other than the values of secularism. So, controlling of communal violence, which is possible if there is adequate determination to do so, is not being done effectively. The second reason is the communalized state machinery, the investigating agencies, police and bureaucracy. How to investigate the cases, how to frame the innocents is an easy enough job, which the authorities do and their Khaki uniform empowers them to do it with ease. It is precisely due to this that the fate of inquiry commission reports has not been significant one. Starting from Madon Commission of inquiry into Bhiwandi riots, to Shrikrishna Commission and Liberhan Commission reports, the outcome, taking action based on the report, is close to zero as the implementing authorities, political leadership is opportunist and lacks the strength to stick to principles.
So where do we go from here. While the communal forces are out to proactively browbeat the religious minorities, the secular formations do not have the spine to ensure justice and equity. Its’ here, that the social activism which has prominently come up during last two decades in particular, needs to be strengthened. The activist groups have taken up these issues seriously and the initiatives by social activists is a major landmark in this direction. One wonders, why are the left parties, which should be principally secular to the core are shunning these efforts. Their joining these efforts to get equity and justice to minorities will put pressure on the parties like Congress and Samajvadi to try to become sincere in their efforts.
The intensification of efforts through judiciary and popular protests has to be intensified. The rot set in our democratic polity due to the infiltration of communalism through different mechanisms has been a very dangerous one to the values of our Constitution. It is time that we as a nation introspect and get over the biases and prejudiced behaviors towards weaker sections of our society. The path to social progress is paved through amity and justice. Professional attitude in investigation of acts of violence, communal amity and justice for all are the prerequisites of social progress, progress of society in the real sense.
Ram Puniyani
Rihai Manch, a forum for getting justice to the falsely implicated youth in the cases of acts of terror has currently (June 2013), a protest Dharna (sit in) to demand the arrest of police and IB officials responsible for the death of Maulana Khalid Mujahid, to implement the R.D. Nimesh Commission report and to release the innocent Muslim youth implicated in acts of terror. This campaign is getting broader support from more human rights groups and affected community. This is the major effort by a civic society group to democratically protest against the insensitive and biased state machinery, to pressurize it to come to the path of justice.
The Samajvadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav Government in UP, had earlier claimed to be the major champion of the cause of Muslims, to the extent that the main leader of this party Mulayam Singh Yadav was derogatorily called Mulla Mulayam. But as he came to power last time also during his regime many a communal episodes, violence, took place under the very nose of the Government. Currently also Akhilesh Yadav‘s regime is marked by over 27 episodes of major riots. On the top of that this Government in its election promise had said that the innocents, implicated in the acts of terror will be released. On the contrary, the death of Maulana Khalid Mujahid in the police custody has raised sufficient doubts about the intentions of the Government. Even R.D. Nimesh Commission report was kept in the cold storage from last one year, and now when it has been released finally, the government is refraining from taking action, hiding behind the argument that it will be discussed in future Assembly session before action is taken on the report. As such Government has full prerogative to take action at Cabinet level. People fear that this commission report may also face the same fate as the other commission reports, which are generally put on the backburner or put in the cold storage.
Ashsish Khaitan, one of the journalists with dogged determination, sensitivity and honesty, has floated a portal, Gulail (Slingshot) to highlight the investigative reports related to the framing of innocents by authorities. Many an officers have falsely implicated innocents, despite knowing the truth, to enhance their own career prospects or to due to the biases which have gripped the large sections of the law enforcement agencies. These agencies regard that only youth from one religious community are responsible for the acts of terror. Khiatan also opines that putting forward the truth of such cases is also not of much use; as in such cases reports of honest investigations are overshadowed by the biased reporting and opinions in the print, T.V. and social media. He is pinning his hopes on judiciary and the people’s campaigns for getting justice. The ongoing dharna in UP is drawing the attention of the social groups and is being sustained for over two weeks by the social activists and the pained and anguished community, whose young ones’ are being incarcerated and have to suffer not only the future career prospects but have also to get the blame, which ostracize them from social life. In this direction various efforts have been undertaken in the past but after temporary response and restraint the investigation agencies lapse in to their usual prejudiced actions.
Not only can this be seen in the case of UP, but overall one sees the wide gulf between the promises and actual actions of the so called ‘secular parties’. While in Maharashtra the Congress coalition came to power with the promise of implementing Shrikrishna Commission report of 92-93 riots, after coming to power on this promise it put forward the usual excuses and the guilty police officers and political leadership continued to be in their positions of power despite sufficient proof of their involvement in instigating and participating in the riots., As for as justice to the victims and action against the guilty is concerned Samajvadi Party seems to be no different. The R.D. Nimesh Commission has given the full truth based on which it can proceed to punish the guilty police officers, but that’s what is being avoided. The credentials of so called secular parties are more are less similar, be it the Congress or be it the Samajvadi Party, they have very opportunistic attitude as far as the justice to minorities is concerned. While communal parties are out to do away with the rights of minorities and deny them justice through and through, these so called secular parties have dual character. They promise and are unable to deliver as their calculations are built around the vote bank politics.
This is due to multiple factors. One is that these supposedly secular parties are also being trapped by the considerations other than the values of secularism. So, controlling of communal violence, which is possible if there is adequate determination to do so, is not being done effectively. The second reason is the communalized state machinery, the investigating agencies, police and bureaucracy. How to investigate the cases, how to frame the innocents is an easy enough job, which the authorities do and their Khaki uniform empowers them to do it with ease. It is precisely due to this that the fate of inquiry commission reports has not been significant one. Starting from Madon Commission of inquiry into Bhiwandi riots, to Shrikrishna Commission and Liberhan Commission reports, the outcome, taking action based on the report, is close to zero as the implementing authorities, political leadership is opportunist and lacks the strength to stick to principles.
So where do we go from here. While the communal forces are out to proactively browbeat the religious minorities, the secular formations do not have the spine to ensure justice and equity. Its’ here, that the social activism which has prominently come up during last two decades in particular, needs to be strengthened. The activist groups have taken up these issues seriously and the initiatives by social activists is a major landmark in this direction. One wonders, why are the left parties, which should be principally secular to the core are shunning these efforts. Their joining these efforts to get equity and justice to minorities will put pressure on the parties like Congress and Samajvadi to try to become sincere in their efforts.
The intensification of efforts through judiciary and popular protests has to be intensified. The rot set in our democratic polity due to the infiltration of communalism through different mechanisms has been a very dangerous one to the values of our Constitution. It is time that we as a nation introspect and get over the biases and prejudiced behaviors towards weaker sections of our society. The path to social progress is paved through amity and justice. Professional attitude in investigation of acts of violence, communal amity and justice for all are the prerequisites of social progress, progress of society in the real sense.
May 24, 2013
Massive Police bias and misconduct unearthed by Ashish Khetan: Appeal to Citizens of Mumbai and India (A Matter of Conscience)
From: Teesta Setalvad
Date: Thu, May 23, 2013 at 4:56 PM
Subject: Appeal to Citizens of Mumbai and India (A Matter of Conscience)
May 23, 2013
Dear Friends.
Firstly I would urge all those who read this mail, to send a few words in response. It is unbearable to receive no replies at all...
For some time now, the unprofessional conduct of our investigating agencies in general but especially in cases related to investigations on "terror" have been surfacing, albeit in a sporadic manner. Intrepid journalist Ashish Khetan with his indomitable courage and commitment to precision and detail has unearthed an Investigation that raises serious questions about the unprofessional and rank biased conduct of the Maharashtra ATS. Senior officers with close patronage to politicians have been found guilty of the most unspeakable abuses. We do urge that you have a look. The scenario is quite worrisome and frightening. I enclose the articles below.
For those interested in exploring the issue further, do visit his web portal, GULAIL. And for those interested in reading his Letter Petition to the Bombay High Court, do write in...
Yesterday at the Mumbai event more than 25 media persons (print and television were present. Reports have appeared only in The Hindu, Mumbai Mirror and ADC. Inquilab, Rashtriya Sahara, Urdu Times prominent front page coverage. Though reporters from the TOI, Indian Express, DNA, Mid-Day, Hindustan Times were present -- no reports appeared. HT had however carried two stories abut the Delhi event last Saturday. (Some articles are attached)
A word for other friends from all walks of life, citizens of Mumbai, who till a decade back actively engaged in issues of conscience. Few were present at the meeting yesterday. What worries us is the sense of despair and alienation that must be felt by the sections who are at the receiving end of this treatment by sections of the establishment - be it Muslims today, Dalit activists tomorrow or adivasis all the time .... Have we lost our soul? Or do we see this as a problem that does not affect us ? If citizens of our city are treated this way by a police that feels it is unaccountable, this could spell danger and doom for civilized co-existence.
Quite apart from the rank un-professionalism and bias that this Expose by ASHISH KHETAN/GULAIL reveals, the sense of despair and alienation that such relentless treatment must ensure is also something that should concern us all. I do recall doing a similar expose of the 1993 Blast investigations when the Crime Branch office and the Mahim Police station were locales for the most unspeakable torture and treatment of family members of some accused and other alleged accused..Even women and children had not been spared.....
Twenty years down the line, little has changed; if at all things have gotten much much worse.
Yours, In Faith and Hope
Teesta
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/from-stenography-to-journalismashish-khetan/article4739935.ece
THE HINDU
23MAY2013
From stenography to journalism — Ashish Khetan
Special Correspondent
Damning evidence against ATS operations
While the rest of the crime reporters were busy taking down what the police or Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) was putting out in Mumbai, journalist Ashish Khetan formerly with Tehelka, says he struck out on his own to go beyond the official versions of “terrorists”and terror cases. His year-long investigation into three major cases of bomb blasts has exposed horrific truths about the way in which the ATS, the Maharashtra police and police from other states have functioned with impunity and virtually condemned and tortured 21 young men because they were Muslims.
Khetan’s investigative journalism portal aptly named Gulail (or slingshot in English) has “ unearthed internal documents from more than half a dozen anti-terror agencies that show that the State has been knowingly prosecuting innocent Muslims for terror cases and keeping the evidence of their innocence from the courts.”
At a press conference on Wednesday to present his investigation and screen a film with candid interviews of accused Muslim men, Mr Khetan also said he had sent a letter petition to the Bombay high court with nearly 400 pages of evidence in the form of official investigation and interrogation reports of the accused men and other documents which clearly indicate huge discrepancies. The petition said that his research into the July 11, 2006, train blasts, the Malegaon 2006 blasts and the Pune German Bakery blasts of February 2010 show that the ATS has deliberately created bogus evidence, extracted false confessions by the most inhuman torture, planted explosives in the houses of the young men and implicated innocent youth. In the name of internal security, the ATS and other agencies were misleading the courts, Khetan said.
Senior police officials have been named by the young men in their interviews, where they speak of torture and abuse and pressure to turn approver for large sums of money. A senior police officer even expressed his helplessness and said it was important for them to find some accused since they were unable to crack the case. There are different versions of the same case notably Malegaon 2006 where the NIA has just filed a chargesheet. Seven of the nine men arrested earlier were released on bail in 2011.
Khetan said he wasn’t out to prove anyone’s guilt but expose the farcical criminal investigation which also reflected deepset anti Muslim prejudice. What is serious is that one of these men Himayat Baig has been given the death sentence for the Pune German Bakery blasts when clearly police had found evidence of another man’s involvement. The case of Qateel Sheikh who died in a high security Pune prison just before he was to testify in a Delhi court is not longer a mystery going by what Khetan’s documents show. The ATS arrested Himayat Baig from Udgir and claimed he had carried out the German Bakery blast. However, a year later the Delhi police arrested Qatil Siddiqui and Interrogation Reports obtained by Khetan show he is linked to the Pune blast. These reports were not produced in the court which finally gave Baig the death sentence. Police then tweaked reports to show Sheikh’s involvement in another case.
Presenting all the facts, Khetan has asked the high court to order an independent commission of inquiry into the conduct of the investigating officers, action against officers guilty of violations and relief for the victims of such operations.
http://www.afternoondc.in/epaper/EpaperPost.aspx?id=83257
Afternoon
23MAY2013
State ATS falsely implicated many Muslim youths in 7/11 train blast: Ashish Khetan
Thursday, May 23, 2013
By Zuber Ansari
Making serious allegations against Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Ashish Khetan, a senior journalist working with various media houses has said that many Muslim youths have been falsely implicated by these agencies in several blast cases.
He also alleged that three IPS officers, including two former city police commissioners, A.N. Roy and K.P. Raghuvanshi, had tortured many youth and forced them into confessing to crimes by threatening their parents and family members.
Screening a video at the Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) on Wednesday, in which he claimed that in at least three cases of terror, the July 11, 2006 Mumbai local train blasts, the 2006 Malegaon blasts and the Pune Best Bakery case of February 2010, the Maharashtra ATS had deliberately created bogus evidence, extracted false confessions by the most inhuman torture, planted explosives in the houses, to implicate innocent Muslim youth.
The video documentary reveals that torture, which included water-boarding, narcotic injections and illegal detention, was used as means of extracting false confessions and forcing innocents to turn approvers.
In the video, one Dr Tariq Ansari from Kurla, who was detained in the 7/11 blast case, is shown saying, “They picked me up from my Kurla residence and took me to Nagpada office of the ATS. There, A N Roy started beating me with his shoes and later offered me Rs.25 lakh to confess. Later, some ATS officers asked me to confess if I wanted to see my family members including my brothers alive.”
Another victim, who is an IT professional, is seen in the video saying, “We were taken to Bangalore Forensic Laboratory were one Mrs. Malini, who was the Director of the laboratory started torturing us physically and asked me to confess because she was under pressure from ATS, and if I did not do so then she would kill me with some medicine.”
It was the then ATS chief, Hemant Karkare, who changed the view towards Muslim youth and proved that Hindus could also be involved in blasts, after arresting many persons who belonged to Hindu outfits, added Khetan.
We have already forwarded letters to the National Human Rights Commission and Minority Commission to look into the matter and are soon going to file a petition in this regard. “My intention is not to pass a verdict of guilt against certain accused. But it is only to highlight the blatant discrepancies and contradictions in terror investigations,” claimed Khetan.
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=MIRRORNEW&BaseHref=MMIR/2013/05/23&PageLabel=12&EntityId=Ar01201&ViewMode=HTML
MM
23MAY2013
Agencies tinkered with evidence in terror cases, claims scribe
Mumbai Mirror Bureau @timesgroup.com TWEETS @_mumbaimirror
In a letter to the Chief Justice of India, investigative reporter Ashish Khetan has stated that different investigating agencies across India produced different versions of same terror cases and altered the evidence to suit their version.
At least in 3 cases prosecuted by ATS Maharashtra—July 11, 2006 Mumbai local train blasts, 2006 Malegaon blasts and Pune German Bakery case of February 2010—ATS deliberately created bogus evidence, extracted false confessions, planted explosives in the houses of the accused and implicated innocent youth, read the letter.
Khetan has uploaded the interaction he had with some of accused in the 7/11blastcaseonhiswebsite,www.gulail.com. Interestingly, these interviews were conducted in the court premises. Khetan said the ATS officials often tried to bribe the accused.
“The interview was conducted in the court premises with a spy camera. Accused Ehtasham Siddiqui, Majid Mohammed, Kamal Ansari and Naved Khan have alleged that they were lured by ATS officials to become approvers. They were offered Rs 25 lakh,” said Khetan.
In the interview, the accused claimedthatthecopsofferedthemjobs but they declined. Khetan was also informed that the then ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi asked the accused to help police convict others. “The accused signed the confession when they were threatened of dire consequences,” he said. On the website, he has also categorically pointed out various loopholes in the investigation.
Meanwhile, in the letter to the CJI, Khetan has stated that in the 7/11 case, a chargesheet was filed against 13 suspects belonging to Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). As many as 15 others were named as absconding on December 1, 2006. The accused included various professionals.
In2008,however,fresharrestswere made and Indian Mujahideen (IM) claimed responsibility for all attacks between 2005 and 2008. It led to the arrest of Sadiq Sheikh by Crime Branch, the letter stated. The confessions by Sheikhandothersclearlyshowthatthe people earlier prosecuted by the ATS had no connection with the local train bombings of 2006.
“These confessions contain a meticulously detailed description of more than eight terror strikes that Sheikh andhisaccompliceshadallegedlyplotted and executed since 2003. But curiously,Sheikhandhisaccompliceswere chargesheeted in only those blast cases in which the investigation was still not completed. Hyderabad blasts of 2007, Ahmedabad and Surat blasts of 2008 and Delhi blasts of 2008 were some of the cases in which the IM members were chargesheeted,” said the letter.
“Revelations regarding any blast before 2007 were ignored because those cases were claimed to have been solved. Sheikh and a few others were discharged in 2009, as ATS claimed they did not have enough evidence against them,” said Khetan.
http://navbharattimes.indiatimes.com/mumbai-crime/Makes-Maharashtra-police-39terror39--senior-journalist/articleshow/20214293.cms
Navbharattimes
'महाराष्ट्र पुलिस बनाती है आतंकी'
नवभारत टाइम्स | May 23, 2013, 05.30AM IST
रिपोर्टर॥ मुंबई।।
देश में हुए कई सीरियल बम ब्लास्ट की जांच करने वाली महाराष्ट्र एटीएस एक खास वर्ग के लोगों को निशाना बनाती है। इन लोगों की भूमिका किसी भी बम ब्लास्ट में प्रत्यक्ष या अप्रत्यक्ष रूप से नहीं है। दबाव की वजह से एटीएस देश भर से निर्दोष लोगों को पकड़कर कोर्ट में पेश कर देती है। इतना ही नहीं, बम बलास्ट में शामिल होने की बात कबूल करवाने के लिए एटीएस निर्दोष नौजवानों को जेल की सजा, पैसों और मुंबई में फ्लैट दिलाने का लालच भी देती है। पकडे़ गए आरोपियों की पत्नियों के साथ यौन उत्पीड़न की धमकी भी दी जाती है। यह खुलासा बुधवार को इंडियन मर्चेंट चेंबर में एक कॉन्फ्रेंस में वरिष्ठ पत्रकार आशीष खेतान ने किया।
गुनाह कबूल करवाने का दबाव
आशीष खेतान ने मीडिया के सामने पेश किए गए दर्जनों विडियो क्लिप में एटीएस द्वारा कि ए गए आतंकी हमलों की जांच का खुलासा किया है। उन्होंने जुलाई 2006 में हुए लोकल ट्रेन बम ब्लास्ट मामले में पकडे़ गए 13 आरोपियों में से 9 आरोपियों के स्ंिटग ऑपरेशन दिखाए, जिसमें आरोपियों ने उस समय के पूर्व कमिश्नर ए. एन. रॉय, एटीएस चीफ के. पी. रघुवंशी, पुलिस अधिकारी नवल बजाज और एटीएस जांच अधिकारी दिनेश कदम की भूमिका पर सवाल खडे़ किए। इन फुटेज में आरोपी युवक बताते हैं कि उन्हें एटीएस द्वारा हर दिन दो बार पुलिस स्टेशन में टॉर्चर किया जाता था। उनके गुप्तांगों में एक किस्म के तेल का इंजेक्शन लगाया जाता है।
कतिल मरा नहीं, मारा गया
13 फरवरी, 2010 को पुणे की जर्मन बेकरी ब्लास्ट में एटीएस द्वारा पक ड़े गए आरोपी कतिल सिद्दीकी और हिमायत बेग को खेतान ने निर्दोष बताया। खेतान के मुताबिक, हिमायत बेग को निर्दोष साबित करने वाला एकमात्र गवाह कतिल सिद्दीकी ही था। विशेष अदालत में गवाही की एक रात उसकी ऑर्थर रोड जेल की अति सुरक्षित मानी जाने वाली अंडा सेल में मौत हो गई। कतिल मरा नहीं, मारा गया, क्योंकि एटीएस पर हिमायत बेग को दोषी ठहराने का दबाव था।
एक गुनाह के दो आरोपी
2006 में हुए मालेगांव बम ब्लास्ट मामले में महाराष्ट्र एटीएस के चीफ के. पी. रघुवंशी ने कुछ मुसलमान युवकों को स्वयं अरेस्ट किया था। एटीएस ने इस मामले में मो. अली और आसिफ खान को अरेस्ट किया, जबकि एनआईए ने हिंदू संगठन
...
Date: Thu, May 23, 2013 at 4:56 PM
Subject: Appeal to Citizens of Mumbai and India (A Matter of Conscience)
May 23, 2013
Dear Friends.
Firstly I would urge all those who read this mail, to send a few words in response. It is unbearable to receive no replies at all...
For some time now, the unprofessional conduct of our investigating agencies in general but especially in cases related to investigations on "terror" have been surfacing, albeit in a sporadic manner. Intrepid journalist Ashish Khetan with his indomitable courage and commitment to precision and detail has unearthed an Investigation that raises serious questions about the unprofessional and rank biased conduct of the Maharashtra ATS. Senior officers with close patronage to politicians have been found guilty of the most unspeakable abuses. We do urge that you have a look. The scenario is quite worrisome and frightening. I enclose the articles below.
For those interested in exploring the issue further, do visit his web portal, GULAIL. And for those interested in reading his Letter Petition to the Bombay High Court, do write in...
Yesterday at the Mumbai event more than 25 media persons (print and television were present. Reports have appeared only in The Hindu, Mumbai Mirror and ADC. Inquilab, Rashtriya Sahara, Urdu Times prominent front page coverage. Though reporters from the TOI, Indian Express, DNA, Mid-Day, Hindustan Times were present -- no reports appeared. HT had however carried two stories abut the Delhi event last Saturday. (Some articles are attached)
A word for other friends from all walks of life, citizens of Mumbai, who till a decade back actively engaged in issues of conscience. Few were present at the meeting yesterday. What worries us is the sense of despair and alienation that must be felt by the sections who are at the receiving end of this treatment by sections of the establishment - be it Muslims today, Dalit activists tomorrow or adivasis all the time .... Have we lost our soul? Or do we see this as a problem that does not affect us ? If citizens of our city are treated this way by a police that feels it is unaccountable, this could spell danger and doom for civilized co-existence.
Quite apart from the rank un-professionalism and bias that this Expose by ASHISH KHETAN/GULAIL reveals, the sense of despair and alienation that such relentless treatment must ensure is also something that should concern us all. I do recall doing a similar expose of the 1993 Blast investigations when the Crime Branch office and the Mahim Police station were locales for the most unspeakable torture and treatment of family members of some accused and other alleged accused..Even women and children had not been spared.....
Twenty years down the line, little has changed; if at all things have gotten much much worse.
Yours, In Faith and Hope
Teesta
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/from-stenography-to-journalismashish-khetan/article4739935.ece
THE HINDU
23MAY2013
From stenography to journalism — Ashish Khetan
Special Correspondent
Damning evidence against ATS operations
While the rest of the crime reporters were busy taking down what the police or Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) was putting out in Mumbai, journalist Ashish Khetan formerly with Tehelka, says he struck out on his own to go beyond the official versions of “terrorists”and terror cases. His year-long investigation into three major cases of bomb blasts has exposed horrific truths about the way in which the ATS, the Maharashtra police and police from other states have functioned with impunity and virtually condemned and tortured 21 young men because they were Muslims.
Khetan’s investigative journalism portal aptly named Gulail (or slingshot in English) has “ unearthed internal documents from more than half a dozen anti-terror agencies that show that the State has been knowingly prosecuting innocent Muslims for terror cases and keeping the evidence of their innocence from the courts.”
At a press conference on Wednesday to present his investigation and screen a film with candid interviews of accused Muslim men, Mr Khetan also said he had sent a letter petition to the Bombay high court with nearly 400 pages of evidence in the form of official investigation and interrogation reports of the accused men and other documents which clearly indicate huge discrepancies. The petition said that his research into the July 11, 2006, train blasts, the Malegaon 2006 blasts and the Pune German Bakery blasts of February 2010 show that the ATS has deliberately created bogus evidence, extracted false confessions by the most inhuman torture, planted explosives in the houses of the young men and implicated innocent youth. In the name of internal security, the ATS and other agencies were misleading the courts, Khetan said.
Senior police officials have been named by the young men in their interviews, where they speak of torture and abuse and pressure to turn approver for large sums of money. A senior police officer even expressed his helplessness and said it was important for them to find some accused since they were unable to crack the case. There are different versions of the same case notably Malegaon 2006 where the NIA has just filed a chargesheet. Seven of the nine men arrested earlier were released on bail in 2011.
Khetan said he wasn’t out to prove anyone’s guilt but expose the farcical criminal investigation which also reflected deepset anti Muslim prejudice. What is serious is that one of these men Himayat Baig has been given the death sentence for the Pune German Bakery blasts when clearly police had found evidence of another man’s involvement. The case of Qateel Sheikh who died in a high security Pune prison just before he was to testify in a Delhi court is not longer a mystery going by what Khetan’s documents show. The ATS arrested Himayat Baig from Udgir and claimed he had carried out the German Bakery blast. However, a year later the Delhi police arrested Qatil Siddiqui and Interrogation Reports obtained by Khetan show he is linked to the Pune blast. These reports were not produced in the court which finally gave Baig the death sentence. Police then tweaked reports to show Sheikh’s involvement in another case.
Presenting all the facts, Khetan has asked the high court to order an independent commission of inquiry into the conduct of the investigating officers, action against officers guilty of violations and relief for the victims of such operations.
http://www.afternoondc.in/epaper/EpaperPost.aspx?id=83257
Afternoon
23MAY2013
State ATS falsely implicated many Muslim youths in 7/11 train blast: Ashish Khetan
Thursday, May 23, 2013
By Zuber Ansari
Making serious allegations against Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Ashish Khetan, a senior journalist working with various media houses has said that many Muslim youths have been falsely implicated by these agencies in several blast cases.
He also alleged that three IPS officers, including two former city police commissioners, A.N. Roy and K.P. Raghuvanshi, had tortured many youth and forced them into confessing to crimes by threatening their parents and family members.
Screening a video at the Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) on Wednesday, in which he claimed that in at least three cases of terror, the July 11, 2006 Mumbai local train blasts, the 2006 Malegaon blasts and the Pune Best Bakery case of February 2010, the Maharashtra ATS had deliberately created bogus evidence, extracted false confessions by the most inhuman torture, planted explosives in the houses, to implicate innocent Muslim youth.
The video documentary reveals that torture, which included water-boarding, narcotic injections and illegal detention, was used as means of extracting false confessions and forcing innocents to turn approvers.
In the video, one Dr Tariq Ansari from Kurla, who was detained in the 7/11 blast case, is shown saying, “They picked me up from my Kurla residence and took me to Nagpada office of the ATS. There, A N Roy started beating me with his shoes and later offered me Rs.25 lakh to confess. Later, some ATS officers asked me to confess if I wanted to see my family members including my brothers alive.”
Another victim, who is an IT professional, is seen in the video saying, “We were taken to Bangalore Forensic Laboratory were one Mrs. Malini, who was the Director of the laboratory started torturing us physically and asked me to confess because she was under pressure from ATS, and if I did not do so then she would kill me with some medicine.”
It was the then ATS chief, Hemant Karkare, who changed the view towards Muslim youth and proved that Hindus could also be involved in blasts, after arresting many persons who belonged to Hindu outfits, added Khetan.
We have already forwarded letters to the National Human Rights Commission and Minority Commission to look into the matter and are soon going to file a petition in this regard. “My intention is not to pass a verdict of guilt against certain accused. But it is only to highlight the blatant discrepancies and contradictions in terror investigations,” claimed Khetan.
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=MIRRORNEW&BaseHref=MMIR/2013/05/23&PageLabel=12&EntityId=Ar01201&ViewMode=HTML
MM
23MAY2013
Agencies tinkered with evidence in terror cases, claims scribe
Mumbai Mirror Bureau @timesgroup.com TWEETS @_mumbaimirror
In a letter to the Chief Justice of India, investigative reporter Ashish Khetan has stated that different investigating agencies across India produced different versions of same terror cases and altered the evidence to suit their version.
At least in 3 cases prosecuted by ATS Maharashtra—July 11, 2006 Mumbai local train blasts, 2006 Malegaon blasts and Pune German Bakery case of February 2010—ATS deliberately created bogus evidence, extracted false confessions, planted explosives in the houses of the accused and implicated innocent youth, read the letter.
Khetan has uploaded the interaction he had with some of accused in the 7/11blastcaseonhiswebsite,www.gulail.com. Interestingly, these interviews were conducted in the court premises. Khetan said the ATS officials often tried to bribe the accused.
“The interview was conducted in the court premises with a spy camera. Accused Ehtasham Siddiqui, Majid Mohammed, Kamal Ansari and Naved Khan have alleged that they were lured by ATS officials to become approvers. They were offered Rs 25 lakh,” said Khetan.
In the interview, the accused claimedthatthecopsofferedthemjobs but they declined. Khetan was also informed that the then ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi asked the accused to help police convict others. “The accused signed the confession when they were threatened of dire consequences,” he said. On the website, he has also categorically pointed out various loopholes in the investigation.
Meanwhile, in the letter to the CJI, Khetan has stated that in the 7/11 case, a chargesheet was filed against 13 suspects belonging to Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). As many as 15 others were named as absconding on December 1, 2006. The accused included various professionals.
In2008,however,fresharrestswere made and Indian Mujahideen (IM) claimed responsibility for all attacks between 2005 and 2008. It led to the arrest of Sadiq Sheikh by Crime Branch, the letter stated. The confessions by Sheikhandothersclearlyshowthatthe people earlier prosecuted by the ATS had no connection with the local train bombings of 2006.
“These confessions contain a meticulously detailed description of more than eight terror strikes that Sheikh andhisaccompliceshadallegedlyplotted and executed since 2003. But curiously,Sheikhandhisaccompliceswere chargesheeted in only those blast cases in which the investigation was still not completed. Hyderabad blasts of 2007, Ahmedabad and Surat blasts of 2008 and Delhi blasts of 2008 were some of the cases in which the IM members were chargesheeted,” said the letter.
“Revelations regarding any blast before 2007 were ignored because those cases were claimed to have been solved. Sheikh and a few others were discharged in 2009, as ATS claimed they did not have enough evidence against them,” said Khetan.
http://navbharattimes.indiatimes.com/mumbai-crime/Makes-Maharashtra-police-39terror39--senior-journalist/articleshow/20214293.cms
Navbharattimes
'महाराष्ट्र पुलिस बनाती है आतंकी'
नवभारत टाइम्स | May 23, 2013, 05.30AM IST
रिपोर्टर॥ मुंबई।।
देश में हुए कई सीरियल बम ब्लास्ट की जांच करने वाली महाराष्ट्र एटीएस एक खास वर्ग के लोगों को निशाना बनाती है। इन लोगों की भूमिका किसी भी बम ब्लास्ट में प्रत्यक्ष या अप्रत्यक्ष रूप से नहीं है। दबाव की वजह से एटीएस देश भर से निर्दोष लोगों को पकड़कर कोर्ट में पेश कर देती है। इतना ही नहीं, बम बलास्ट में शामिल होने की बात कबूल करवाने के लिए एटीएस निर्दोष नौजवानों को जेल की सजा, पैसों और मुंबई में फ्लैट दिलाने का लालच भी देती है। पकडे़ गए आरोपियों की पत्नियों के साथ यौन उत्पीड़न की धमकी भी दी जाती है। यह खुलासा बुधवार को इंडियन मर्चेंट चेंबर में एक कॉन्फ्रेंस में वरिष्ठ पत्रकार आशीष खेतान ने किया।
गुनाह कबूल करवाने का दबाव
आशीष खेतान ने मीडिया के सामने पेश किए गए दर्जनों विडियो क्लिप में एटीएस द्वारा कि ए गए आतंकी हमलों की जांच का खुलासा किया है। उन्होंने जुलाई 2006 में हुए लोकल ट्रेन बम ब्लास्ट मामले में पकडे़ गए 13 आरोपियों में से 9 आरोपियों के स्ंिटग ऑपरेशन दिखाए, जिसमें आरोपियों ने उस समय के पूर्व कमिश्नर ए. एन. रॉय, एटीएस चीफ के. पी. रघुवंशी, पुलिस अधिकारी नवल बजाज और एटीएस जांच अधिकारी दिनेश कदम की भूमिका पर सवाल खडे़ किए। इन फुटेज में आरोपी युवक बताते हैं कि उन्हें एटीएस द्वारा हर दिन दो बार पुलिस स्टेशन में टॉर्चर किया जाता था। उनके गुप्तांगों में एक किस्म के तेल का इंजेक्शन लगाया जाता है।
कतिल मरा नहीं, मारा गया
13 फरवरी, 2010 को पुणे की जर्मन बेकरी ब्लास्ट में एटीएस द्वारा पक ड़े गए आरोपी कतिल सिद्दीकी और हिमायत बेग को खेतान ने निर्दोष बताया। खेतान के मुताबिक, हिमायत बेग को निर्दोष साबित करने वाला एकमात्र गवाह कतिल सिद्दीकी ही था। विशेष अदालत में गवाही की एक रात उसकी ऑर्थर रोड जेल की अति सुरक्षित मानी जाने वाली अंडा सेल में मौत हो गई। कतिल मरा नहीं, मारा गया, क्योंकि एटीएस पर हिमायत बेग को दोषी ठहराने का दबाव था।
एक गुनाह के दो आरोपी
2006 में हुए मालेगांव बम ब्लास्ट मामले में महाराष्ट्र एटीएस के चीफ के. पी. रघुवंशी ने कुछ मुसलमान युवकों को स्वयं अरेस्ट किया था। एटीएस ने इस मामले में मो. अली और आसिफ खान को अरेस्ट किया, जबकि एनआईए ने हिंदू संगठन
...
May 22, 2013
India: Rihai Manch in Lucknow starts indefinite dharna at Vidhan Sabha demanding arrest of police officers involved in Khalid Mujahid's murder. Candle light protest at GPO
Text of statement in Hindi
RIHAI MANCH
(Forum for the Release of Innocent Muslims imprisoned in the name of Terrorism)
_______________________________________________________________
खालिद के हत्यारे पुलिस अधिकारियों की गिरफ्तारी के लिए रिहाई मंच ने
लखनऊ विधानसभा पर षुरु किया अनिष्चित कालीन धरना
सपा के मुस्लिम विधायकों और मंत्रियों का होगा घेराव- रिहाई मंच
रिहाई आंदोलन के वकीलों पर फैजाबाद में हुआ हमला सरकार की साजिष
जीपीओ हजरतगंज पर कैंडिल लाइट प्रोटेस्ट कर मौलाना खालिद के हत्यारों को
सजा देने की मांग की गई और मौलाना खालिद को श्रद्धांजलि दी गई
लखनऊ 22 मई 2013/ मौलाना खालिद मुजाहिद की हत्या में नामजद वरिश्ठ पुलिस
अधिकारियों को टर्मिनेट व गिरफ्तारी, निमेश कमीषन की रिपोर्ट तत्काल जारी
करने, आतंकवाद के नाम कैद बेगुनाह मुस्लिम नौजवानों को तत्काल रिहा करने,
फैजाबाद में रिहाई आंदोलन से जुडे़ वकीलों के हमलावरों को तत्काल
गिरफ्तार करने को लेकर रिहाई मंच ने आज अनिष्चित कालीन धरना लखनऊ
विधानसभा के सामने षुरु कर दिया।
धरने में वक्ताओं ने कहा कि खालिद मुजाहिद की हत्या में आरोपी बनाए गए
पुलिस अधिकारी विक्रम सिंह, बृजलाल, अमिताभ यष, मनोज कुमार झा, एस आनंद,
चिरंजीव नाथ सिन्हा इत्यादि को अब तक गिरफ्तार न करना सरकार की मुस्लिम
विरोधी नियत को उजागर कर देता है।
वक्ताओं ने कहा कि एक तरफ मुख्यमंत्री अखिलेष यादव कहते हैं कि खालिद की
मौत बीमारी से हुई है वहीं पोस्ट मार्टम रिपोर्ट बताती है कि डाक्टर
खालिद की मौत के किसी निश्कर्श पर नहीं पहुंच पा रहे हैं कि उसकी मौत
कैसे हुई, इससे अखिलेष का झूठ उजागर हो जाता है। लेकिन मुख्यमंत्री को
समझ लेना चाहिए कि प्रदेष की जनता को अब और बेवकूफ बनाना मुष्किल है और
प्रदेष सरकार की उल्टी गिनती अब षुरु हो गई है। धरने में तय किया गया कि
खालिद मुजाहिद की हत्या के बाद भी खामोष रहने वाले सपा के मुस्लिम
विधायकों और सरकार के मुस्लिम मंत्रियों के घरों का घेराव किया जाएगा और
साथ ही जो सपा समर्थक कथित उलेमा इस आंदोलन को कमजोर करने के लिए सत्ता
की तरफ से गुमराह करने की कोषिष करेंगे उनकी खैर नहीं। क्योंकि यह आंदोलन
तय करेगा कि हमारा षहीद मौलाना खालिद मुजाहिद बेकसूर था और पुलिस,
एसटीएफ-एटीएस, आईबी और आतंकियों में गठजोड़ है।
फैजाबाद में रिहाई आंदोलन से जुड़े वकीलों पर हमले को सरकार द्वारा
आंदोलन को कमजोर करने के लिए कराया गया हमला करार देते हुए वक्ताओं ने
कहा कि यह महज एत्तेफाक नहीं है कि फैजाबाद का प्रषासनिक अमला इस हमले का
मूक दर्षक बना रहा और एफआईआर दर्ज करने में आना-कानी करता रहा क्योंकि
फैजाबाद के मौजूदा एसपी मनोज कुमार झा स्वंय खालिद की हत्या में नामजद
किए गए हैं। जिन्होंने एसटीएफ में एडीषनल एसपी रहते हुए खालिद के पास से
हथियार बरामद करने का दावा किया था। जिसे निमेश कमीषन ने फर्जी करार देते
हुए खालिद को गलत तरीके से फसाने वाले एसटीएफ अधिकारियों के खिलाफ कड़ी
कार्यवाई की सिफारिष की है। वक्ताओं ने कहा कि अगर सपा सरकार में थोड़ी
भी षर्म बची हो तो वह फैजाबाद के एसपी को तत्काल निलंबित कर दे। सोषलिस्ट
पार्टी ने अपने उपाध्यक्ष मो0 षुएब की सुरक्षा की मांग की।
धरने को रिहाई मंच के अध्यक्ष मो0 शुएब, इंडियन नेशनल लीग के राष्ट्रीय
अध्यक्ष मो0 सुलेमान, रिहाई मंच के महासचिव पूर्व पुलिस महानिरिक्षक एसआर
दारापुरी, मैग्सेसे पुरस्कार से सम्मानित सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता संदीप
पाण्डे, अवामी काउंसिल के असद हयात, एपवा की ताहिरा हसन, वरिष्ठ पत्रकार
अजय सिंह, आईपीएफ नेता और इलाहाबाद विश्वविधालय के अध्यक्ष लाल बहादुर
सिंह, सोशलिस्ट पार्टी के राष्ट्रीय मंत्री ओमकार सिंह, सोशलिस्ट फ्रंट
नेता मो0 आफाक, एसआईओ के प्रदेश अध्यक्ष साकिब आइसा के प्रदेश उपाध्यक्ष
सुनील मौर्या, सुधांशु बाजपेयी, पीस पार्टी के मसूद रियाज, अखलाख, फरहान
वारसी, हाजी सैयद फहीम सिदीकी, मुस्लिम संघर्ष मोर्चा के आफताब अहमद खान,
सैयद मोईद अहमद, जैद फारुकी, प्रबुद्ध, तारिक शफीक, स्मार्ट पार्टी के
शहजादे मंसूर अहमद, शिब्ली बेग, इशहाक, गोपल कष्यप, सलीम, मुमताज, केके
श्रीवास्तव, हरे राम मिश्रा, सादिक, मो0 समी, खालिद, वसीम, शान,, शाहनवाज
आलम, राजीव यादव।
द्वारा जारी-
शाहनवाज आलम, राजीव यादव
09415254919, 09452800752
______________________________________________________________
Office - 110/60, Harinath Banerjee Street, Naya Gaaon East, Laatoosh
Road, Lucknow
Forum for the Release of Innocent Muslims imprisoned in the name of Terrorism
Email- rihaimanchindia@gmail.com
RIHAI MANCH
(Forum for the Release of Innocent Muslims imprisoned in the name of Terrorism)
_______________________________________________________________
खालिद के हत्यारे पुलिस अधिकारियों की गिरफ्तारी के लिए रिहाई मंच ने
लखनऊ विधानसभा पर षुरु किया अनिष्चित कालीन धरना
सपा के मुस्लिम विधायकों और मंत्रियों का होगा घेराव- रिहाई मंच
रिहाई आंदोलन के वकीलों पर फैजाबाद में हुआ हमला सरकार की साजिष
जीपीओ हजरतगंज पर कैंडिल लाइट प्रोटेस्ट कर मौलाना खालिद के हत्यारों को
सजा देने की मांग की गई और मौलाना खालिद को श्रद्धांजलि दी गई
लखनऊ 22 मई 2013/ मौलाना खालिद मुजाहिद की हत्या में नामजद वरिश्ठ पुलिस
अधिकारियों को टर्मिनेट व गिरफ्तारी, निमेश कमीषन की रिपोर्ट तत्काल जारी
करने, आतंकवाद के नाम कैद बेगुनाह मुस्लिम नौजवानों को तत्काल रिहा करने,
फैजाबाद में रिहाई आंदोलन से जुडे़ वकीलों के हमलावरों को तत्काल
गिरफ्तार करने को लेकर रिहाई मंच ने आज अनिष्चित कालीन धरना लखनऊ
विधानसभा के सामने षुरु कर दिया।
धरने में वक्ताओं ने कहा कि खालिद मुजाहिद की हत्या में आरोपी बनाए गए
पुलिस अधिकारी विक्रम सिंह, बृजलाल, अमिताभ यष, मनोज कुमार झा, एस आनंद,
चिरंजीव नाथ सिन्हा इत्यादि को अब तक गिरफ्तार न करना सरकार की मुस्लिम
विरोधी नियत को उजागर कर देता है।
वक्ताओं ने कहा कि एक तरफ मुख्यमंत्री अखिलेष यादव कहते हैं कि खालिद की
मौत बीमारी से हुई है वहीं पोस्ट मार्टम रिपोर्ट बताती है कि डाक्टर
खालिद की मौत के किसी निश्कर्श पर नहीं पहुंच पा रहे हैं कि उसकी मौत
कैसे हुई, इससे अखिलेष का झूठ उजागर हो जाता है। लेकिन मुख्यमंत्री को
समझ लेना चाहिए कि प्रदेष की जनता को अब और बेवकूफ बनाना मुष्किल है और
प्रदेष सरकार की उल्टी गिनती अब षुरु हो गई है। धरने में तय किया गया कि
खालिद मुजाहिद की हत्या के बाद भी खामोष रहने वाले सपा के मुस्लिम
विधायकों और सरकार के मुस्लिम मंत्रियों के घरों का घेराव किया जाएगा और
साथ ही जो सपा समर्थक कथित उलेमा इस आंदोलन को कमजोर करने के लिए सत्ता
की तरफ से गुमराह करने की कोषिष करेंगे उनकी खैर नहीं। क्योंकि यह आंदोलन
तय करेगा कि हमारा षहीद मौलाना खालिद मुजाहिद बेकसूर था और पुलिस,
एसटीएफ-एटीएस, आईबी और आतंकियों में गठजोड़ है।
फैजाबाद में रिहाई आंदोलन से जुड़े वकीलों पर हमले को सरकार द्वारा
आंदोलन को कमजोर करने के लिए कराया गया हमला करार देते हुए वक्ताओं ने
कहा कि यह महज एत्तेफाक नहीं है कि फैजाबाद का प्रषासनिक अमला इस हमले का
मूक दर्षक बना रहा और एफआईआर दर्ज करने में आना-कानी करता रहा क्योंकि
फैजाबाद के मौजूदा एसपी मनोज कुमार झा स्वंय खालिद की हत्या में नामजद
किए गए हैं। जिन्होंने एसटीएफ में एडीषनल एसपी रहते हुए खालिद के पास से
हथियार बरामद करने का दावा किया था। जिसे निमेश कमीषन ने फर्जी करार देते
हुए खालिद को गलत तरीके से फसाने वाले एसटीएफ अधिकारियों के खिलाफ कड़ी
कार्यवाई की सिफारिष की है। वक्ताओं ने कहा कि अगर सपा सरकार में थोड़ी
भी षर्म बची हो तो वह फैजाबाद के एसपी को तत्काल निलंबित कर दे। सोषलिस्ट
पार्टी ने अपने उपाध्यक्ष मो0 षुएब की सुरक्षा की मांग की।
धरने को रिहाई मंच के अध्यक्ष मो0 शुएब, इंडियन नेशनल लीग के राष्ट्रीय
अध्यक्ष मो0 सुलेमान, रिहाई मंच के महासचिव पूर्व पुलिस महानिरिक्षक एसआर
दारापुरी, मैग्सेसे पुरस्कार से सम्मानित सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता संदीप
पाण्डे, अवामी काउंसिल के असद हयात, एपवा की ताहिरा हसन, वरिष्ठ पत्रकार
अजय सिंह, आईपीएफ नेता और इलाहाबाद विश्वविधालय के अध्यक्ष लाल बहादुर
सिंह, सोशलिस्ट पार्टी के राष्ट्रीय मंत्री ओमकार सिंह, सोशलिस्ट फ्रंट
नेता मो0 आफाक, एसआईओ के प्रदेश अध्यक्ष साकिब आइसा के प्रदेश उपाध्यक्ष
सुनील मौर्या, सुधांशु बाजपेयी, पीस पार्टी के मसूद रियाज, अखलाख, फरहान
वारसी, हाजी सैयद फहीम सिदीकी, मुस्लिम संघर्ष मोर्चा के आफताब अहमद खान,
सैयद मोईद अहमद, जैद फारुकी, प्रबुद्ध, तारिक शफीक, स्मार्ट पार्टी के
शहजादे मंसूर अहमद, शिब्ली बेग, इशहाक, गोपल कष्यप, सलीम, मुमताज, केके
श्रीवास्तव, हरे राम मिश्रा, सादिक, मो0 समी, खालिद, वसीम, शान,, शाहनवाज
आलम, राजीव यादव।
द्वारा जारी-
शाहनवाज आलम, राजीव यादव
09415254919, 09452800752
______________________________________________________________
Office - 110/60, Harinath Banerjee Street, Naya Gaaon East, Laatoosh
Road, Lucknow
Forum for the Release of Innocent Muslims imprisoned in the name of Terrorism
Email- rihaimanchindia@gmail.com
May 18, 2013
Announcement: discussion on Terror Investigations and the Criminal Justice System (New Delhi, 18 May 2013)
DISADVANTAGE MUSLIMS
We are holding a discussion on Terror Investigations and the Criminal Justice System in the wake of some new revelations. We are expecting the attendance of a distinguished panel of lawyers to discuss the subject.The event is being held at 6 pm at Lecture Hall 2, IIC Annexe, Basement, India International Centre on May 18th, (Saturday).
We will use the occasion to announce the launch of a new website dedicated to investigative journalism.
We will appreciate your presence at the event.
Warm regards
Ashish Khetan
We are holding a discussion on Terror Investigations and the Criminal Justice System in the wake of some new revelations. We are expecting the attendance of a distinguished panel of lawyers to discuss the subject.The event is being held at 6 pm at Lecture Hall 2, IIC Annexe, Basement, India International Centre on May 18th, (Saturday).
We will use the occasion to announce the launch of a new website dedicated to investigative journalism.
We will appreciate your presence at the event.
Warm regards
Ashish Khetan
May 05, 2013
7/11 Mumbai train blasts case: Big holes in Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad's theory
Indian Express - The Sunday Story 5 May 2013
We weren’t on the trains...
by Sukanya Shantha : Sun May 05 2013
On April 25, a nodal officer from Bharti Airtel walked into the dock to face the defence lawyer in the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts case. The point of contention was whether the three men who allegedly planted bombs on seven Mumbai trains on the Western Railway Line on July 11, 2006, killing 187 people and leaving over 900 wounded, were present at the spot of the incident.
While the prosecution has all along claimed that the three alleged bombers—Ehthesham Kutubuddin Siddiqui, Asif Bashir Khan alias Junaid alias Abdulla and Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rehman Shaikh—boarded the trains bound to Virar and Borivali from Churchgate station and got off at Dadar, the call data records (CDRs) produced in the special MCOCA court that is hearing the case have drilled holes in the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad's theory. The records have supported the claims of the accused that they were at their work places or were home when the blasts took place.
Though the prosecution has said that the accused did not use their mobile phones during the alleged operation and that they could have left the phones with their family or friends, the defence argued that in that case, it is for the prosecution to probe who had been using these phones.
What lends further credence to the defence theory is that two years after the 13 men were arrested and the cases handed over to the ATS, the Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police arrested five alleged Indian Mujahideen men and claimed they were responsible for the July 11, 2006, Mumbai blasts. On October, 18, 2008, DCP Vishwas Nagrepatil recorded a confession of Mohammad Sadiq, an alleged IM member, under Section 18 of MCOCA.
***
Ehthesham Siddiqui says he had been in Mumbai for only a couple of years, making a living getting books printed for a commission, when he was arrested in August 2006. On the day of the blast, Siddiqui claims to have gone to meet one of his clients at Mira Road. According to a letter he wrote to the trial court in 2006, a claim that was also supported by the CDRs, Siddiqui was at Mira Road throughout the day.
But according to the prosecution, the 24-year-old was the Mumbai secretary of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and had allegedly harboured Pakistani terrorists in the city. He allegedly surveyed local trains in Mumbai before the blasts, helped assemble bombs and attended conspiracy meetings. One of the bombs exploded at Mira Road station.
Siddiqui, now 31, says he filed over 1,500 RTI applications while in prison. Over 400 of these were directly related to the train blast case. "I asked for the minutest of details—date of arrest, place where we were kept, platforms on which the trains had halted. Initially, the replies were vague, today our defence case stands on the information gathered under the Act," says Siddiqui.
The soft spoken Siddiqui has regularly sought, and got, answers through RTI applications and through petitions in courts—on the condition of the cramped Anda cell in Arthur Road Jail where he and the other accused are being held, the size of the beds in prison, the "behaviour" of the superintendent who "regularly thrashed" the inmates and many more.
Siddiqui, who had a diploma in chemical engineering when he was arrested in 2008, is now studying for his masters in tourism management from Indira Gandhi National Open University. On weekdays, he attends court and on weekends, he goes to K J Somaiya College at Vidyavihar in Central Mumbai for his classes. "Two constables stand guard while I sit through my three-hour class," he says.
Siddiqui has played a key role in strengthening the defence's stand. "Earlier, even when we screamed out loud that we were innocent, no one listened to us. Today, we are backing it with evidence," he says.
Siddiqui says he always wanted to study further, "but could never pursue it". "I am putting these years in jail to good use. Life in prison can bring out the worst in a person. If the mind if not channeled into doing something constructive, the strongest of men can break down."
While Siddiqui had been implicated in two other cases for his alleged SIMI activities, he has been acquitted in one of them. Another case is in its final leg.
While in jail, Siddiqui's parents rarely visited him. "But they are supportive. Travelling from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh is difficult, but they know what's happening here." His two younger brothers support his parents back home, he adds.
***
Asif Bashir Khan, 40, the 'second bomber', was arrested three months after the blast for allegedly placing a bomb in a 17:37-hour Virar Slow local. The bomb he allegedly planted in the first-class compartment of the train exploded between Mira Road and Bhayander stations. He was arrested on October 3 from Karnataka.
The ATS claims he supplied and distributed the RDX which was used in the train blasts and later in the 2006 Malegaon blasts. But the attendance register at Khan's office showed he was at his workplace in Kandivali from morning until 6 pm, something the CDRs of his phone too indicate, says defence lawyer Sharif Shaikh.
"I was in my office in Kandivali that day. I signed my muster roll in the morning, worked through the day and left in the evening," says Khan, a civil engineer who worked as a site in-charge with the Lokhandwala Group at the time of his arrest. His claims are supported by the nodal officer of the cellphone company and matches the CDRs furnished in court.
"When I set out that day after work, I heard trains were being targeted. I was both sad and worried," he says. "Sad" that innocents were killed and "worried" for his community. "I knew the police would go after Muslims. But I didn't know I would be one of the several Muslims to be rounded up," Khan says.
The ATS alleged that Khan masterminded the blasts and harboured Pakistani terrorists at his home in Mira Road. They alleged that he had bought rexine bags, utensils, ammonium nitrate, detonators and helped assemble bombs at his house.
What followed the arrest, Khan says, is "deplorable", something even "real bombers" should not be subjected too. "The officers tried every tactic possible to extract a confession from me. I would be stripped naked and beaten by any and every officer handling the case. They threatened to get my family from Jalgaon and abuse me in their presence," Khan says. "It is a systematically executed operation. Muslims are targeted not just by a few communal minds, but an entire system which works on one agenda," he says.
Through RTI, Khan was able to trash the testimonies of two of the prosecution witnesses who claimed that they had seen Khan board the train at Churchgate and get off at Dadar. He says it wasn't easy to procure the CDRs. "But this delay in a way proved to be a blessing in disguise. Had the case been wrapped up soon after we were arrested, most of these revelations would not have happened."
***
For Faisal Shaikh, 37, 2006 had begun well. Two of his brothers had got jobs in software companies, he had started his new business and was planning to set up a small workshop at Jogeshwari. "My youngest brother Muzzamil had just got a job with Oracle and my other brother, Rahil, had shifted to London. But then, the blasts happened and everything changed overnight," he says, standing in a small passage at the Kala Ghoda sessions court in south Mumbai.
ATS claimed Shaikh was chief of Lashkar-e-Toiba's Mumbai unit and worked for Azam Cheema, Lashkar's commander-in-chief (training) in Pakistan. While Shaikh was picked up for planting a bomb which exploded near Jogeshwari station, his brother Muzzamil, then 22 years old, was subsequently arrested for being a 'conspirator'. The chargesheet names Shaikh's other brother, Rahil, as one of the 15 absconding accused. "I was picked up on July 19 but official records show that I was arrested on July 27. The tower readings show how several calls were made from my phone in and around Jacob Circle road," Shaikh says. He is tall and broad built, speaks a distinct Mumbaiyya tongue. Shaikh says life hasn't been the same for his family since the arrest. "Relatives, who earlier said they considered us to be their role models, had suddenly distanced themselves," he says.
He says he has made friends with a few policemen in jail. "But when I begin to narrate my story of discrimination and how my family was targeted, they do not want to believe. 'Kuch toh kiya hoga', they say."
The CDR revelation, Shaikh says, "has directly questioned the ATS's story. But we hear no noise." He blames the media, too. "They never question the police version. We have to fight our own battles," says Shaikh.
TRIAL TRAIL
July 20 to October 2, 2006: State ATS arrests 13
Muslim men
November 29, 2006: Chargesheet filed and all 13 accused booked under MCOCA and sections of IPC
December 18, 2007: Trial commences with the examination of first witness
2008: Accused move Supreme Court, trial stayed. Stay lifted two years later, on April 23, 2010
August 16, 2012: Defence seeks warrant on ATS to trace the CDRs of the seized mobile phones of the accused. This data, with the ATS, was not produced in court. Trial court rejects application
December 10, 2012: HC quashes the trial court order
March 7, 2013: Three nodal officers quote amount of Rs 34 lakh in court to retrieve the CDRs. Later, Vodafone, Loop, Airtel and Tata Teleservices make the CDRs available free of cost
The Retractions
Muzamil Jaleel
Between July 20, 2006, and October 3, 2006, Mumbai Police's ATS arrested 13 people and claimed to have cracked the case. The ATS claimed that these men had confessed to their crime. In November 2006, all the accused filed written submissions to the court, saying they were made to confess under severe custodial torture. Extracts from the submissions of three of the accused:
Ehthesham Siddiqui, Accused No. 4
"On 07.11.2006, my Test Identification Parade was held at Arthur Road Jail's open ground. The witnesses were kept in (a) room inside the jail...I and Mohammed Ali (were) made to stand between 12 dummies. (We had) beards and the other 12 dummies were clean shaven...so we both can be easily identified. I was identified by three witnesses...ATS cell ACP Vinod Bhatt, a respectable ATS officer, met me twice, first time he asked me about myself and my past. When he met me second time, I told him that I am innocent...He said that you are innocent and all other accused are also innocent. I am (under pressure) from superior officers of ATS to falsely implicate you and other accused in the said case. He had named specifically ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi, A N Roy (then Commissioner of Mumbai Police)...Mr Vinod Bhat was a good and honest officer, he had committed suicide but I say that the ATS officers had killed him because he was not cooperating (with) them to falsely implicate us in the case.
I was given shock treatment (after getting me to strip)...They used to tie wire on the thumb of (my) leg, then they used to give shock treatment at regular intervals. I was also given shock (treatment) on my private parts at regular intervals...They used to tie me upside down...and my both hands were tied by rope. Then they used to pour water into my nose at regular intervals...They warned me that my brother and father will be also (included) in the bomb blast case if I do not sign on the confessional statement. They also warned that (women) members of my family will be brought and...molested."
(Written submission to court on March 9, 2006)
- See more at: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/we-weren-t-on-the-trains.../1111537/0#sthash.YXTvz8od.dpuf
We weren’t on the trains...
by Sukanya Shantha : Sun May 05 2013
On April 25, a nodal officer from Bharti Airtel walked into the dock to face the defence lawyer in the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts case. The point of contention was whether the three men who allegedly planted bombs on seven Mumbai trains on the Western Railway Line on July 11, 2006, killing 187 people and leaving over 900 wounded, were present at the spot of the incident.
While the prosecution has all along claimed that the three alleged bombers—Ehthesham Kutubuddin Siddiqui, Asif Bashir Khan alias Junaid alias Abdulla and Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rehman Shaikh—boarded the trains bound to Virar and Borivali from Churchgate station and got off at Dadar, the call data records (CDRs) produced in the special MCOCA court that is hearing the case have drilled holes in the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad's theory. The records have supported the claims of the accused that they were at their work places or were home when the blasts took place.
Though the prosecution has said that the accused did not use their mobile phones during the alleged operation and that they could have left the phones with their family or friends, the defence argued that in that case, it is for the prosecution to probe who had been using these phones.
What lends further credence to the defence theory is that two years after the 13 men were arrested and the cases handed over to the ATS, the Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police arrested five alleged Indian Mujahideen men and claimed they were responsible for the July 11, 2006, Mumbai blasts. On October, 18, 2008, DCP Vishwas Nagrepatil recorded a confession of Mohammad Sadiq, an alleged IM member, under Section 18 of MCOCA.
***
Ehthesham Siddiqui says he had been in Mumbai for only a couple of years, making a living getting books printed for a commission, when he was arrested in August 2006. On the day of the blast, Siddiqui claims to have gone to meet one of his clients at Mira Road. According to a letter he wrote to the trial court in 2006, a claim that was also supported by the CDRs, Siddiqui was at Mira Road throughout the day.
But according to the prosecution, the 24-year-old was the Mumbai secretary of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and had allegedly harboured Pakistani terrorists in the city. He allegedly surveyed local trains in Mumbai before the blasts, helped assemble bombs and attended conspiracy meetings. One of the bombs exploded at Mira Road station.
Siddiqui, now 31, says he filed over 1,500 RTI applications while in prison. Over 400 of these were directly related to the train blast case. "I asked for the minutest of details—date of arrest, place where we were kept, platforms on which the trains had halted. Initially, the replies were vague, today our defence case stands on the information gathered under the Act," says Siddiqui.
The soft spoken Siddiqui has regularly sought, and got, answers through RTI applications and through petitions in courts—on the condition of the cramped Anda cell in Arthur Road Jail where he and the other accused are being held, the size of the beds in prison, the "behaviour" of the superintendent who "regularly thrashed" the inmates and many more.
Siddiqui, who had a diploma in chemical engineering when he was arrested in 2008, is now studying for his masters in tourism management from Indira Gandhi National Open University. On weekdays, he attends court and on weekends, he goes to K J Somaiya College at Vidyavihar in Central Mumbai for his classes. "Two constables stand guard while I sit through my three-hour class," he says.
Siddiqui has played a key role in strengthening the defence's stand. "Earlier, even when we screamed out loud that we were innocent, no one listened to us. Today, we are backing it with evidence," he says.
Siddiqui says he always wanted to study further, "but could never pursue it". "I am putting these years in jail to good use. Life in prison can bring out the worst in a person. If the mind if not channeled into doing something constructive, the strongest of men can break down."
While Siddiqui had been implicated in two other cases for his alleged SIMI activities, he has been acquitted in one of them. Another case is in its final leg.
While in jail, Siddiqui's parents rarely visited him. "But they are supportive. Travelling from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh is difficult, but they know what's happening here." His two younger brothers support his parents back home, he adds.
***
Asif Bashir Khan, 40, the 'second bomber', was arrested three months after the blast for allegedly placing a bomb in a 17:37-hour Virar Slow local. The bomb he allegedly planted in the first-class compartment of the train exploded between Mira Road and Bhayander stations. He was arrested on October 3 from Karnataka.
The ATS claims he supplied and distributed the RDX which was used in the train blasts and later in the 2006 Malegaon blasts. But the attendance register at Khan's office showed he was at his workplace in Kandivali from morning until 6 pm, something the CDRs of his phone too indicate, says defence lawyer Sharif Shaikh.
"I was in my office in Kandivali that day. I signed my muster roll in the morning, worked through the day and left in the evening," says Khan, a civil engineer who worked as a site in-charge with the Lokhandwala Group at the time of his arrest. His claims are supported by the nodal officer of the cellphone company and matches the CDRs furnished in court.
"When I set out that day after work, I heard trains were being targeted. I was both sad and worried," he says. "Sad" that innocents were killed and "worried" for his community. "I knew the police would go after Muslims. But I didn't know I would be one of the several Muslims to be rounded up," Khan says.
The ATS alleged that Khan masterminded the blasts and harboured Pakistani terrorists at his home in Mira Road. They alleged that he had bought rexine bags, utensils, ammonium nitrate, detonators and helped assemble bombs at his house.
What followed the arrest, Khan says, is "deplorable", something even "real bombers" should not be subjected too. "The officers tried every tactic possible to extract a confession from me. I would be stripped naked and beaten by any and every officer handling the case. They threatened to get my family from Jalgaon and abuse me in their presence," Khan says. "It is a systematically executed operation. Muslims are targeted not just by a few communal minds, but an entire system which works on one agenda," he says.
Through RTI, Khan was able to trash the testimonies of two of the prosecution witnesses who claimed that they had seen Khan board the train at Churchgate and get off at Dadar. He says it wasn't easy to procure the CDRs. "But this delay in a way proved to be a blessing in disguise. Had the case been wrapped up soon after we were arrested, most of these revelations would not have happened."
***
For Faisal Shaikh, 37, 2006 had begun well. Two of his brothers had got jobs in software companies, he had started his new business and was planning to set up a small workshop at Jogeshwari. "My youngest brother Muzzamil had just got a job with Oracle and my other brother, Rahil, had shifted to London. But then, the blasts happened and everything changed overnight," he says, standing in a small passage at the Kala Ghoda sessions court in south Mumbai.
ATS claimed Shaikh was chief of Lashkar-e-Toiba's Mumbai unit and worked for Azam Cheema, Lashkar's commander-in-chief (training) in Pakistan. While Shaikh was picked up for planting a bomb which exploded near Jogeshwari station, his brother Muzzamil, then 22 years old, was subsequently arrested for being a 'conspirator'. The chargesheet names Shaikh's other brother, Rahil, as one of the 15 absconding accused. "I was picked up on July 19 but official records show that I was arrested on July 27. The tower readings show how several calls were made from my phone in and around Jacob Circle road," Shaikh says. He is tall and broad built, speaks a distinct Mumbaiyya tongue. Shaikh says life hasn't been the same for his family since the arrest. "Relatives, who earlier said they considered us to be their role models, had suddenly distanced themselves," he says.
He says he has made friends with a few policemen in jail. "But when I begin to narrate my story of discrimination and how my family was targeted, they do not want to believe. 'Kuch toh kiya hoga', they say."
The CDR revelation, Shaikh says, "has directly questioned the ATS's story. But we hear no noise." He blames the media, too. "They never question the police version. We have to fight our own battles," says Shaikh.
TRIAL TRAIL
July 20 to October 2, 2006: State ATS arrests 13
Muslim men
November 29, 2006: Chargesheet filed and all 13 accused booked under MCOCA and sections of IPC
December 18, 2007: Trial commences with the examination of first witness
2008: Accused move Supreme Court, trial stayed. Stay lifted two years later, on April 23, 2010
August 16, 2012: Defence seeks warrant on ATS to trace the CDRs of the seized mobile phones of the accused. This data, with the ATS, was not produced in court. Trial court rejects application
December 10, 2012: HC quashes the trial court order
March 7, 2013: Three nodal officers quote amount of Rs 34 lakh in court to retrieve the CDRs. Later, Vodafone, Loop, Airtel and Tata Teleservices make the CDRs available free of cost
The Retractions
Muzamil Jaleel
Between July 20, 2006, and October 3, 2006, Mumbai Police's ATS arrested 13 people and claimed to have cracked the case. The ATS claimed that these men had confessed to their crime. In November 2006, all the accused filed written submissions to the court, saying they were made to confess under severe custodial torture. Extracts from the submissions of three of the accused:
Ehthesham Siddiqui, Accused No. 4
"On 07.11.2006, my Test Identification Parade was held at Arthur Road Jail's open ground. The witnesses were kept in (a) room inside the jail...I and Mohammed Ali (were) made to stand between 12 dummies. (We had) beards and the other 12 dummies were clean shaven...so we both can be easily identified. I was identified by three witnesses...ATS cell ACP Vinod Bhatt, a respectable ATS officer, met me twice, first time he asked me about myself and my past. When he met me second time, I told him that I am innocent...He said that you are innocent and all other accused are also innocent. I am (under pressure) from superior officers of ATS to falsely implicate you and other accused in the said case. He had named specifically ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi, A N Roy (then Commissioner of Mumbai Police)...Mr Vinod Bhat was a good and honest officer, he had committed suicide but I say that the ATS officers had killed him because he was not cooperating (with) them to falsely implicate us in the case.
I was given shock treatment (after getting me to strip)...They used to tie wire on the thumb of (my) leg, then they used to give shock treatment at regular intervals. I was also given shock (treatment) on my private parts at regular intervals...They used to tie me upside down...and my both hands were tied by rope. Then they used to pour water into my nose at regular intervals...They warned me that my brother and father will be also (included) in the bomb blast case if I do not sign on the confessional statement. They also warned that (women) members of my family will be brought and...molested."
(Written submission to court on March 9, 2006)
- See more at: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/we-weren-t-on-the-trains.../1111537/0#sthash.YXTvz8od.dpuf
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