Advocate MOBIN AKHTAR, a civil and criminal lawyer who practises in High Court of Delhi and Supreme Court and who is presently handling the case of Batla House fake encounter, talks about the recent crackdown of police in the Jamia Nagar area, their modus operandi and the adversarial system of justice prevalent in our country. In an interview with KAMRAN SHAHID ANSARI, he speaks on how to deal with the present critical situation and laments the disunity among the Muslim leadership. Excerpts:
Do you think there has been a shift in the operation of police since the attack on the car of Israeli diplomat?
No, not really. There has been no change in the operation of police; however we may say that it may have implications on the diplomatic relations between Iran, Israel and India. As per its implications on Indian Muslims it seems that there would be no change.
Do you see any purpose in the visit of Mossad’s chief just a week before the incident?
Well, it seems to me that yes there is a purpose. He however visited Ajmer as well but I believe that it was just eyewash and there seems to be a hidden agenda behind it. It should also be noted that since the formation of Israeli Embassy around 1990s, there has been a surge in bombings. The number of bomb attacks has increased ever since.
We have seen police cracking down in the Jamia Nagar area. What rationale do you see behind choosing this very area and why not any other area?
The reason which I perceive is that this very area is replete with qualified and educated people who are armed with both religious and modern education, besides some religious seminaries. With modern and traditional education at their disposal, Muslims of this area have a wider vision and keep a good eye on the world and international relations and politics. There are hardly any home you will find in this area where there are no graduates. So the enemies fear that with good education, there will be an easy access to resources. And as we know, knowledge and resources are two such things which can do anything and can work wonders.
They see these educated people as threat and hence it seems that they have adopted the policy to defame Muslims and their whole community. They are hell-bent on creating a false propaganda against the Muslims and with this trying their level best to make sure that Muslims do not get education, admission or jobs anywhere. There is nothing like terrorism and there exists no terrorism, it is just a false uproar and a worst kind of hatred policy directed against Muslims by the divisive forces existing in India.
How do they target the individuals? Do they keep records of person’s mobile phone or internet connection?
See we are aware that offices of most of good Muslim organisations are in this area. And the way police operate shows that they know everything about the person and just for the sake of implication they mould the case in the direction that suits best to their interest. Another important thing that must be noted is that all the bomb blast cases that have taken place in the past ten years, the perpetrators were out of the country. So to bring down the ire of general public they seem to catch people and frame them in false cases. And as per the question of tracking the record of individuals it seems to me that phone lines, internet connections and other personal information of people are under a close watch of the authorities.
What is the way to deal with it as generally a mere thought of detention by police sends shivers down the spine of many people?
According to me, the remedy lies in believing. The problem is that we do not believe in Islam. We should throw away the fear as being a Muslim we should only fear our Lord and we have to confront the police with the rights which the Constitution has provided for us. We should ask them questions and use at least the basic privileges given to us.
Another important factor to deal with the problem is to stand united against such atrocities. If the police launch a crackdown on your neighbour, and you know that your neighbour is a good person, then you should support him.
Finally the most important factor for this critical situation is that we are divided among ourselves. They are beating us not because they are powerful and we are weak, but because we are divided. Muslim leadership is split. I strongly believe that probe would have been ordered in the Batla House encounter if all Muslim organisations would have come united and strong, but unfortunately that did not happen.
Recently there has been an increase in the acquittals. Is there any provision to book the guilty officers who were involved in the false implication of the youths?
The system of justice that you mention is the ‘accountable’ system of justice, which unfortunately is not prevalent in our country. In our country we follow the adversarial system of justice. In adversarial system of justice it is believed that the police officer who caught and booked the individual in the case did that in good faith and benefit of doubt is given to the police. Hence this very claim of booking the individual in ‘good faith’ kills the point of prosecuting the police. However these days the adversarial system is losing its sheen and if I am not wrong, Australia recently has adopted the accountable system of justice.