“At least in three cases prosecuted by ATS Maharashtra, namely the July 11 2006 Mumbai local train blasts, the 2006 Malegaon Blasts and the Pune German Bakery case of February 2010, the ATS has deliberately created bogus evidence, extracted false confessions by the most inhuman torture, planted explosives in the houses of the accused and thus implicated innocent Muslim youth….
“The state of corruption goes beyond, what may usually be termed as ‘padding’ a case and in fact shows a deep bias against Muslims in particular, besides absolute contempt for law, justice and truth. The result is a serious breach of the right to life and liberty, the equality before law and our basic constitutional values. The result is also a serious security risk, for this nature of targeting is bound to cause widespread disbelief in mechanisms of justice and exponentially add to a feeling of alienation amongst a sizeable section of the citizenry….
“Water boarding (a notorious technique used by the CIA on Guantanamo Bay Detainees), administration of chemicals through anus and veins, stretching of legs to 180 degree, giving electric shock to private parts and threats to rape female family members were some of the methods of torture used by the ATS to extract false confessions from these 13 Muslims.
“In other words the set of men arrested following the 2007 and 2008 set of bombings across the country were interrogated by Ahmadabad, Delhi, UP, Karnataka and other police teams and were subsequently made common accused in all these 2007-2008 blasts. All these agencies were equally aware that an entirely different set of persons had been put on trial for the 7/11 blasts by ATS Maharashtra, which set of accused could only be innocent, if the later 2008 Interrogation reports were true….
“My intent is not to pass a verdict of guilt against certain accused. But it is to only highlight the blatant discrepancies and contradictions in terror investigations. In light of this, can the ATS be left with the responsibility of terror investigations?”