SYYED MANSOOR AGHA analyses the recent U-turn of NIA in the Malegaon blast cases, and opines that it is dangerous for the state to help criminals evade the hook of the law.
Who Killed Karkare? is the title of a famous book penned by a former IGP of Maharashtra, Mr. S. M. Mushrif. He examined the circumstances in which Mr. Hemant Karkare, then chief of ATS Maharashtra Police, was killed during 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai. He concluded that Karkare became a victim of Hindutva plot as the upright police officer had unearthed the conspiracy behind serial terror attacks in the country and arrested some activists of Hindutva outfits, allegedly working under the wings of RSS. The terror attacks were articulated to tarnish the image of the Muslim minority, create Islamophobia and distrust between the communities.
After eight years of publishing the book, a reputed journalist Sandipan Sharma writes: “Remember Hemant Karkare, the police officer who died on the streets of Mumbai battling terrorists?
“No, Ajmal Kasab and his gang did not kill Karkare on 27 November 2008. He died a thousand painful deaths on Friday, 13th June, 2016 when the National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a charge-sheet in the Malegaon blasts that shreds Karkare’s reputation and questions his integrity.”
Sharma further writes: “In 2009, India decorated Karkare with the Ashok Chakra for laying down his life for the country. Now, he has been thrown into the ugly chakra of terrorism politics.” (Malegaon blasts: While Sadhvi Pragya escapes the law, Karkare’s image takes hit”, First Post, May 14, 2016)
THE BACKGROUND
There were two incidents of killer blasts in Malegaon, first in 2006 and then in 2008. On 8 September 2006, a graveyard adjacent to a mosque shook with blasts just after Friday Salat. It was Shab-e-Bara’at. At least 37 Muslims were killed and 125 rendered injured. The ATS sleuths were quick to blame SIMI and arrested 8 out of 13 accused. They were charge-sheeted.
The second blast on 29 September, 2008 killed 4 and injured 79. As usual, the police once again blamed Muslims and started picking some of them which evoked huge protests. The investigation was handed over to ATS headed by Mr. Hemant Karkare. The initial breakthrough came when the owner of the motorcycle used for the blast was traced to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a former ABVP activist. She was arrested after questioning. Further investigation by the team headed by Karkare led to the arrests of Army officer Lt Col Shrikant Purohit and Major (Rtd) Ramesh Upadhyay. The role of the outfit Abhinav Bharat came to light, along with a key role played by a self-proclaimed Hindu seer, Sudhakar Dwivedi. His laptop proved a treasure trove of important audio and video recordings. Subsequent investigations found that the activists of Hindutva outfits were actually behind several attacks all over India, including the Malegaon 2006 blast.
After completing the probe, ATS under Karkare charge-sheeted 14 hardcore Hindutva activists on January 20, 2009 and April 21, 2011, before special MCOCA court in Mumbai. These included Pragya Singh Thakur, Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Sameer Kulkarni, Rakesh Dhawade, Sudhakar Dwivedi a.ka. Dayanand Pandey, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Pravin Takalki. On bail: Shivnarayan Kalsangra, Shyam Sahu, Ajay alias Raja Rahirkar, Jagdish Mhatre (all under Judicial Custody). Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange are absconding.
In December 2010, the CBI arrested Naba Kumar Sarkar alias Aseemanand. He voluntarily confessed before Judicial Magistrate Panchkula (Punjab) that both the Malegaon blasts were the handiwork of radical Hindutva groups led by former RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi. He said the group was also behind the 2007 blasts in Samjhauta Express, Ajmer Dargah and Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid.
THE NIA INVESTIGATION
In early 2011, the Centre transferred both Malegaon cases, apart from the Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Dargah blast cases, to the NIA. The agency had already been investigating the Samjhauta Express blasts since 2010. In Malegaon blast 2006, since it was clear that ATS (before Hemant Karkare) had fabricated a whole story and NIA found no credible evidence against nine Muslim accused, the court granted them bail in Nov 2011. NIA did not oppose.
AFTER REGIME CHANGED
After the change of power in New Delhi, NIA changed its instance and opposed discharge application of Muslim accused. However, Hon. Justice V.V. Patil, the Sessions Judge absolved them of all charges after over nine years and threw the ATS story into dustbin. He wrote: “In my view, the basic foundation or the objective shown by ATS behind the blast is not acceptable to a man of ordinary prudence. I say so because there was ‘Ganesh immersion’ just prior to September 8, 2006… Had accused no. 1 to 9 any objective that there should be riots at Malegaon then they ought to have planted bombs at the time of Ganesh immersion which would have caused death of most Hindu people. It seems to me highly impossible that accused no. 1 to 9 who are from Muslim community would have decided to kill their own people to create disharmony between the two communities, that too on a holy day i.e. Shab-e Barat.”
The regime change affected all terror cases against Hindutva extremists. On May 13, the NIA submitted another charge-sheet and had not only diluted the case but also blamed Karkare for shaky investigation under “pressure”. In a complete U-turn, the NIA gave clean chit to Pragya Singh Thakur and five co-accused namely Shiv Narayan Kalsangra, Shyam Bhavarlal Sahu, Pravin Takalki, Lokesh Sharma and Dhan Singh Choudhury and said that during investigation, “sufficient evidences have not been found against” the six. The agency submitted in the charge-sheet “the prosecution against them is not maintainable”. NIA also preferred to drop MCOCA against all under which confessional statements of accused are treated as evidence. Now Lt Col Purohit and nine others will be tried for charges including murder and conspiracy under the provisions of anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, IPC, Arms Act and Explosives Substance Act.
NIA U-TURN
NIA U-turn is on expected lines. Mrs. Rohini Salian, who was handling the case as Special Public Prosecutor from the very beginning, had revealed that ever since the Modi government came to power, there had been pressure on her to go soft on the groups of Hindutva accused. She did not relent. Before the June 12, 2015 hearing, an NIA official told her that ‘higher ups’ didn’t want her to appear for the matter. Virtually it was the end of legal procedure for the sake of “Justice”, now it will be to complete the task of saving the skins of the foot soldiers of larger conspiracy to convert India into a Hindu State.
WHY NIA IS SOFT?
Why NIA is soft? Answer may be found in the reported statement of Director General of the NIA: “Since 2008 there has been no activity that has come to the notice of the agency. Hence, there is no question of any threat.” (The Week: Losing the Leads). What does it mean? Can the gangsters be given clean chit if a gang stops its criminal activities?
It looks as if all terror cases against Hindutva activists are on the brink of fall. The process of witnesses turning hostile has begun. Charge-sheets are being revised and charges are being diluted or dropped. Straight forward prosecutors are being sidelined. Investigations of an honest police officer are being discredited. Actually after the killing of Karkare, ATS never bother to further investigate the leads he had collected.
DISCREDITING THE HONEST
Discrediting Karkare’s investigation, NIA maintained: The “recoveries” made by Hemant Karkare team were “doubtful and tainted”. Lamenting on this attitude, the top cop Julio Ribeiro writes: “He was a professional policeman. And he was a patriot. I knew Karkare well. He was one of the – now, unfortunately, diminishing number of – IPS officers who enjoyed an unsullied reputation for integrity, both financial and intellectual.”
It was L.K. Advani and then Modi who had accused Hemant Karkare and his team of framing Pragya Thakur and others. BJP stalwarts bee-lined up to give her comfort in the jail. But, Ribeiro writes, Hemant Karkare was the officer who “would not dream of framing anyone. I believed him because I knew he would do nothing wrong.”
Julio Ribeiro says: “He is not alive to defend himself against all the forces that have been unleashed against him in his absence. But I cannot let these forces go unchallenged. The police officers who knew him are sure that he was not one to concoct evidence.”
In fact, it is dangerous for the state to help criminals evade the hook of the law. Such attitude results in lawless states as we see in our neighbourhood.
[The writer is a Civil Rights activist. [email protected]]