Citing S.M. Mushrif’s book, Who Killed Karkare?, SYED MANSOOR AGHA concludes that cases of 14 youth of Jaipur, 9 of Malegaon and arrests and torture of dozens of Hyderabad boys and many other similar cases show a pattern of police action to malign the fair image of minority community.
In Part I of this article (Radiance, 25-31 Dec) we were discussing the case of Abdul Rehman alias Iqbal who was arrested by Delhi Police and a case of terror was slapped on him. He was latter let off after spending three years and a half in solitary confinement on November 27, 2011 by the court of ASJ Pawan Kumar Jain of Delhi as the police story was found baseless.
After three years and a half, the court let Rehman off doubting the authenticity of the very information, and noted that the so-called secret information was not even recorded anywhere. The court observed, “It is difficult to digest that police officers do not record the secret information anywhere but remember it so well that they can reproduce it even after a period of three years as happened in this case,” the court said.
In its charge sheet, the police claimed at Rehman’s instance recovery of three kgs of RDX, detonators and timers, buried near a mosque at Janakpuri in West Delhi. DP said Rehman had received these contrabands from one Guru, an active HuJI module in Delhi in 2007.
The court, however, rejected this claim saying Guru was never arrested by the police. Even his sketch was not produced in the court which it claimed was circulated for his arrest. Doubting the very existence of Guru, the court said, “If there was no Guru, where was the question of receiving detonators from him.”
Regarding the police claim that the explosives were buried in 2007, the court said, “There was no evidence to show that Rehman was in Delhi during that period,” and that, “the police did not probe if Rehman ever worked in the mosque.”
The court also said, “It might be possible that alleged Guru might have buried the explosives and accused Rehman came to know about it. He cannot be said to be in its conscious possession of explosive,” adding that the police handled the material recovered without gloves and the recovery was not even video-graphed.
The police had claimed that a Bangladesh-based HuJI ‘commander’ Qamar alias Nata had earlier plotted to trigger blasts in Delhi through Pakistan-trained LeT militants. This information was again attributed to interrogation of one Jalaluddin, arrested by UP Police in connection with the Varanasi blasts. However, it may be noted that Varanasi blast investigation is still inconclusive.
In a similar case, in August a Delhi High Court Bench comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat and G P Mittal dismissed Delhi Police appeal against the acquittal of one Ubaid of Srinagar. Police had accused him of being a terror outfit “Al-Badr”. He was let off by trial court in last February as Police investigation was not found satisfactory and evidence produced unreliable.
‘COPS FRAMED THEM’
In a more embarrassing case, a Delhi Court ordered stern action against police officials in an “encounter” case and acquitted all seven accused of terrorism and held that the encounter story was totally false.
Declaring its verdict on Feb 10, 2011, the court of ASJ Virender Bhat acquitted Saqib, Bashir, Nazir Sofi, G. M. Dar, A. M. Bhat, A. Q. Khan and B. K. Singh, who had been arrested in July 2005. The court said, “The encounter did not take place at all. An absolutely fake encounter has been projected. The story of the encounter was carefully scripted in the office of Special Staff, Delhi Police, Dhaula Kuan, by its main author Sub-Inspector Ravinder Tyagi with the assistance of sub-inspectors Nirakar, Charan Singh and Mahender Singh.”
Coming down heavily on the officials involved in the ‘operation’, the court directed the Delhi Police Commissioner to initiate an inquiry against them. “All these four police officers have acted in advancement of their self-interests in total disregard to the demands of their solemn duty. These police officers, whose duty was to protect and safeguard citizens, have turned persecutors and tormentors,” the court noted in its order.
Describing them as “black sheep” that bring disrepute to the police department, the court said there cannot be any crime more serious than an officer of the law framing an innocent citizen in a false criminal case. “Such tendency in police officers should not be viewed or dealt with lightly. It needs to be curbed with a stern hand. Such black sheep, who are out to defame and bring into disrepute the whole police force, need to be identified from the whole flock and taken to task,” said the court.
The police had claimed that the accused – Saqib Rehman, Nazir Sofi, Gulam Moinuddin Dar and Bashir Ahmed Shah – were arrested following a shoot-out near the Gurgaon-Delhi road on July 1, 2005. When the four were reportedly prevented from fleeing, they allegedly opened fire on the police. The police also claimed that an army combat uniform, fake currency amounting to Rs 50,000 and a sketch of the Palam Air Force station were recovered from their possession. In the charge-sheet, the police claimed that the accused persons had disclosed their affiliation to the ISI of Pakistan.
It was also alleged that based on their interrogation, the police had arrested three others and recovered a huge amount of fake currency notes, an AK-47 assault rifle, several magazines, cartridges and hand grenades from the accused. The Judge tore apart every piece of evidence that the prosecution had produced: “the fake army uniform had been made by a tailor in the Delhi Cant area who was a stock witness of the police; the grenades that were supposedly recovered were not produced before the court.”
The Judge ordered that the police party involved in the false frame-up should be tried – that an FIR be filed and a departmental enquiry be instituted against them. The Judge also ordered the judgment to be treated as a complaint against the police officer by the concerned magistrate. However, no action has yet been taken against errant officials as an appeal has been filed in the High Court.
A report on 2CN has revealed that the Delhi Police filed two writs in the High Court against the trial court order: one to overturn the acquittal, and the other to stay the filing of FIR against the accused police officers. While the High Court has granted a stay, the Delhi Police has allegedly adopted wily means to delay the hearing. Its counsel continuously pleads absence on frivolous grounds on each hearing, thereby stalling the proceedings. These are tactics to avoid trial and punishment for what Judge Bhatt described as “the misuse and abuse of their powers as a police officer”.
It is unfortunate that Delhi Police is putting its weight behind tainted officers, “whose guilt has been established so meticulously and unequivocally by the lower court.”
NEXUS WITH LeT
In yet another case, a Delhi court acquitted three Manipur natives of the charges of nexus with LeT. Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested Salman Kori, Abdur Rehman, and M. Akbar Hussein, all residents of Imphal on the intervening night of Dec. 18-19, 2006 from near the Red Fort on the basis of information received during interrogation of two alleged LeT operatives Alamgir Roni and Abdur Razzaq.
Police claimed that explosives recovered from the accused were acquired from Jammu and Kashmir and the trio had come to Delhi to execute blasts. However, the court found the prosecution had failed to support its allegation that the accused were LeT operatives and were here to commit blasts. Sentencing accused persons under Arms Act, Additional Sessions Judge Raj Kapoor held, “Mere possession of explosive substances cannot tantamount to be a threat to the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of India or to strike terror in people or any section of people in India.”
Interestingly all these cases were registered during 2005-06.
OTHER CASES
Cases of 14 youth of Jaipur, 9 persons of Malegaon and arrests and torture of dozens of Hyderabad boys also show the same pattern of Police action and it is indicative of involvement of some central authority. A retired DGP of Maharashtra, S. M. Mushrif in his much publicised book, Who Killed Karkare? has raised his finger against “Brahmanist” elements in CBI for all this mess. He has elaborated how RSS has implanted these elements in higher decision-making positions and trying to malign the minority community of terror and anti-national activities. (Concluded)