Who cares for innocents languishing in jails?

Have the political parties of India given up morality and humanism? Did any honourable Member of Parliament raise his powerful voice against the indefensible but ever-continuing incarceration of young Muslim boys, charged with enacting Malegaon, Ajmer, Hyderabad and Samjhauta Express blasts?

Did any TV channel organise any meaningful talk-show on the redundancy of criminal cases, needlessly destroying careers of Muslim youth in various jails?

Are the State Home Ministers of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh cocksure they will not have to, at the end of the day, hang their heads in shame before the nation in this regard?

What does the law say on the subject in concrete terms? Is this being misused by the morbid minds?

Cannot the Supreme Court, the last ray of hope of the hopeless, take notice on its own as it does in some cases to right a grave and grievous wrong to the principal minority of the country?

TALE-TELL CONFESSIONS

Pragya with senior BJP leaders

After tale-tell confessions, in addition to misleading statements as well, by Col. Srikant Prasad Purohit, Ms. Pragya Singh Thakur and Swami Aseemanand, detention of the Muslim accused appears to be utterly unjustified to the minority leaders, opinion makers, whistle blowers and social activists. If it is a confusing case, let the State and Central governments remove the cobwebs for the sake of clarity and political ethics. 

Here are a few glimpses of some chilling, real life stories, told not by any idiot but by close relations of the police victims:

“I am Saliha Khatoon from Gujarat, Zahid Sheikh’s sister. He had been accused of 26 July 2008 bomb blasts. The police asked him to come for some enquiry regarding mobile SIM cards. He went on his motorcycle and has not returned since then. My parents want to see him. They saw that he was unable to walk. He was severely tortured. We were allowed to meet him for two minutes only.”

“I am Jamil Msiullah from Malegaon, Maharashtra. I am the elder brother of Shabbir Masiullah. The police arrested my brother at 3:30 a.m. on August 3, 2006 from his house. He was given electric shocks on his private parts and acid was poured on his private parts to make him confess that he was responsible for either the Malegaon or the Mumbai local train bomb blasts.”

“I am Abdul Kareem from Hyderabad. I used to drive an auto-rickshaw before arrest. One day police barged into my house and took me away. I was tortured, hit on the soles and other body parts with a rubber belt. I was asked what I knew about the Hyderabad bomb blasts. I answered I did not know anything. But they were still forcing me either to admit to the crime or to speak about it.”

Not only the parents but the nation as a whole must be taken into confidence by the state governments as well as the central government with regard to use of electric shocks and pouring of acid on the private parts of even the proven criminals. This is a subject that deserves sympathetic consideration of the powers-that-be. 

Does our civilized society approve of it? Does it not run counter to human rights, which we think are enjoyed even by the criminals, proven or otherwise.

INTELLIGENCE REVELATIONS

Victims of Malegaon blasts

The above reproductions are from a booklet titled “What It Means to Be a Muslim in India”, brought out by the Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD). 

What a poor, semi-literate, helpless accused can do to sensitise the callous police and the not-so-callous lower level judiciary and administrative officers? Add to it the planned infiltration of communal mindset in the system.

A recently retired Intelligence officer has, not long ago, admitted in black and white: “Hindu link to blasts was ignored at the outset.” To quote him from a story by Josy Joseph from the Times News Network: “... several vital clues that should have prompted us to be far broader in our approach towards those blasts were ignored. We were swept away by the overwhelming opinion in the (security) establishment that only Islamic groups could carry out the sophisticated blasts we saw in Samjhauta and Mecca Masjid.”

Such blasts, he added, were ignored in cases that are now being seen as the handiwork of the Abhinav Bharat network. For example, in the initial days, after the twin blasts in Jama Masjid (on April 14, 2006) we had intercepted suspicious phone calls to an RSS member. But we chose to ignore it.” He added. A senior official pointed out the “environment was so overwhelming” in the belief that only Muslim extremists could carry out terror attacks – “we did not even have discussion on other possibilities.” Mind it: this is from the proverbial horse’s mouth.

UTTERLY ILLOGICAL

Otherwise in each and every democracy, but particularly in a plural polity, justice and even-handedness is a must. What ensures rather strengthens a heterogeneous setup is judicious treatment with various religious, linguistic and cultural segments. The Congress as a party perhaps forgot to look beyond its nose in this regard. Our charge is graver as all the affected States except Gujarat are governed by the Congress Party. See the secularist lethargy on the one hand and on the other observe the systematic plantation by the Rightists of their cadres in various sectors and services. Does the very thought of Muslims blasting the faithful in a mosque during the Friday prayers not run in the face of commonsense? At similar footing rests the case of destruction of a divine’s mausoleum or train carrying Muslims back to their country.

MINDLESS PERSECUTION

But neither at the State level nor at the Central plane, the logic of Muslims killing Muslims appears to be odd. And they continued persuing and prosecuting the innocent Muslim youth. This mindless persecution resulted in legthening the shadows between Muslims and the government, Muslims and Congress and Muslims and other communities. What the Untied States was laboriously popularising after 9/11 that Islam is a terrorist ideology, so are its friends doing in India, official denials notwithstanding.

For what crime Ishrat jahan was murdered?

It is noteworthy that almost each and every fanatic, owing allegiance to the Abhinav Bharat has, direct or indirect, relations with the known fascist outfits.

On the other hand, it is not the case of a few hundred Muslim youth standing between Malegaon and Samjhauta Express. The entire 170-million strong Muslim minority stands in the dock, charged with terrorism not only against the Hindu brethren but against their own co-religionists.

BEYOND ASEEMANAND

Aseemanand

Things would not stop at Swami Aseemanand. Those would go beyond him. The official machinery appears to be acutely conscious of that embarrassing eventuality. Therefore, perhaps they are putting blocks after blocks against the withdrawal of the framed cases and bail to the fictitiously manufactured accused. The less-than-morally conscious officers and their less-than-bold bosses see their political future in keeping the innocent as long as possible in the jails. Inexplicable delay in enquiries, illogical denials of bail and hurdles in the release of the Muslim accused speaks volumes of the nervousness of the bureaucracy. 

ROLE OF SHARAD PAWAR

You must have heard Mr Sharad Pawar periodically vaxing eloquent on the Muslim plight. What you appear to have forgotten is that both at the time of Malegaon and even now the Home Minister of Maharashtra was, and is, from Mr. Pawar’s party, the NCP. At the time of innocent Muslim youths arrest, Mr. Pawar did not raise his little finger. Now when the bail applications of the accused are put forward, they are successfully opposed by police working under the NCP Home Minister. Mr. Pawar, we feel, is doing what an ace politician should, having nothing to do with morality. But what has happened to Dr. Manmohan Singh and Mr. P. Chidambaram? True, law and order is a State subject and security is more than a state subject. But all this should not be used as a tool to persecute a peaceful minority’s upcoming children, whose careers and future are being destroyed mindlessly. Another question of importance is: will it not raise the level of frustration breeding among Muslims? Is it good for national integration?

Let the all-India Muslim leadership rise to the occasion and hold mirror to the morally weak, myopic, unethical leaders of the country and demand justice for the innocent youth who are suffering for crimes which they never committed.

Dr S Ausaf Saied Vasfi in Radiance Weekly. More Here

Now that Aseemanand has confessed, what about the innocent Muslim youth languishing in jails?

Whispers have become words. Murmurs have taken form of sentences. Private conversations and personal convictions are no longer confined within the four walls of a decrepit Muslim household. A quiet sign language has been replaced by a wild scream. The guilt-soaked eyes have got new sparkle of hope and redemption. The Indian Muslim has finally got the guilt-free-pass handed by a ‘devout’ Hindu priest Swami Aseemanand of Dangs, Gujarat.

 

Aseemanand’s judicial confession – that he and his Hindutva men were responsible for five major bomb blasts – has opened Pandora’s Box. The bees of the box have stung so many men in Khakhi. One confession has destroyed the credibility of countless police officers. It is safe to assume that Rajwardhan, the then Rural SP of Nasik, did not sleep properly on Friday night. He weaved a dangerous fictional tale in order to implicate 11 innocent Muslims in Malegaon’s 2006 blasts. It is equally safe to assume that the conscience of former ATS chief KP Raghuvanshi must be cursing himself. It was Raghuvanshi who proudly displayed sketches of two suspects who bought new cycles. How conveniently he forgot the fact that the sketches don’t match with the bearded Muslims languishing in jail! How conveniently he forgot the fact that Shabbir Masiullah, one of the accused, was already in Mumbai police custody since many months before the blasts! How conveniently he forgot the fact that Noorul-Huda, the accused number one, was under close police watch since many years! 

Aseemanand’s confession has brought open the divide within the CBI. The confession is an indictment CBI as well. CBI blindly followed the footprints of KP Raghuvanshi when it filed a supplementary chargesheet in Malegaon 2006 blasts repeating the lies woven by ATS. How conveniently CBI relied on ATS theory that Zahid, the Imam of Phoolsavangi, planted bomb when he was leading Friday prayers hundreds of miles away!  It is altogether a different matter that Aseemanand was arrested by CBI! Therefore it can be safely assumed that there are two kinds of CBI; one highly communal and the other secular. Does CBI stand for Communal Bureau of Investigation?

Harish Gupta, the then Hyderabad Joint Commissioner of Police, took inspiration from KP Raghuvanshi when he falsely implicated 19 Muslims in Mecca Masjid blast case.

The role of RSS has come on spotlight after Aseemanand’s confession. Ram Madhav, RSS spokesman, has said that confession was given under “duress”. He should know that it’s a judicial confession recorded as per the guidelines laid down in Section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code which says that confessions recorded before a magistrate are legally admissible evidence. Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab had given confession under the same section. It is very difficult to retract the confession given under this section. If one retracts confession then it is quite possible that perjury charges will be slapped on him. Retired Bombay High Court judge Justice Hosbet Suresh is of the opinion that the accused can retract his statement. In a recent interview Justice Suresh remarked, “Even if the prosecution relies on it, the magistrate who recorded the confession is summoned and he will give evidence in the court. The magistrate can be cross-examined”.

The communal and biased role of investigating agencies must be fully examined by Prime Minister Manmoham Singh. There is an urgent need for a legislation which will hold our investigating agencies accountable for their misdeeds. Delivering the Fourth R.N. Kao Memorial Lecture on January 19, 2010 organised by the Research and Intelligence Wing (RAW), Vice-President Hamid Ansari had called for greater “oversight and accountability” in the operations of the country’s intelligence agencies. He had suggested setting up of a standing committee of Parliament on intelligence. He passionately argued that just like other democracies like the United States and the United Kingdom, the “concerned agencies should make public their mission statement, outlining periodically their strategic intent, vision, mission, core values and their goals”. It is high time to implement the suggestion of Hamid Ansari. 

Similarly we need to have a mechanism in place whose job is to keep watch that no innocent is falsely accused on terror charges. 32 Muslims have been wrongly imprisoned on terror charges. Four years of incarceration has ruined their lives; their families had literally given up the hope that they will get justice. It remains to be seen how the Indian government is going to right the wrongs done by law-enforcing agencies. Will the offending police officers be booked under the same stringent laws which were abused by them? This will be the biggest test of Indian democracy.   

Indian Muslim’s quest for inclusion in new India will remain a dream unless the guilty police officers are punished. The average Indian Muslim is still trapped between two keywords: Justice and survival.  

From Mubashir Mushtaq's article in Inquilab. More Here