Terror Hunt in Kafkaland: The premature celebration of justice

B.R.P.Bhaskar
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On 29 August, the Supreme Court of India upheld Ajmal Kasab’s death sentence in the Mumbai terror case. The same day, a Gujarat court held former Minister Maya Kodnani, Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi and 30 others guilty of murder in the Naroda Patiya case relating to the massacre of 97 persons, including 35 women and 36 children, in the worst attack on Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. All the accused got life terms.

Also on that day, the police swooped on residences in Bangalore and Hubli in Karnataka and nabbed 11 young men, including a journalist, a doctor and a defence researcher, on charges of plotting to kill pro-Hindutva politicians and journalists. More youths were taken into custody in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh later.

Kasab had his day in court as he had landed in front of ordinary cops and not elite commandos. Justices Aftab Alam and CK Prasad said if he had not been caught alive, he and his Pakistani associates might have passed off as Indian Muslims. They went on to say, “No Indian Muslim would even think of venting his grievance like an animal, killing, maiming and wounding innocent people, his own countrymen.”

The emphasis on the external origin of the 26/11 attacks was welcome, but did the judges not step into uncertain territory when they asserted an Indian Muslim could never be involved in a terror attack? In fact, as they were disposing of Kasab’s appeal, in another courtroom two other judges were hearing appeals filed by Indian Muslims convicted in cases related to the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai. Some of them had pleaded for leniency, saying they were driven by emotions generated by the 6 December 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid.

Both Hindus and Muslims have been active on the terror track. The Malegaon, Mecca Masjid and Samjhauta Express blast cases, in which the police initially implicated Muslims, turned out to be the work of Hindus. The investigative machinery appears to slow down whenever a Hindu hand is exposed. After Mumbai Police officer Hemant Karkare, who first exposed the activities of Hindu terrorists, died—ironically, at the hands of Kasab—there has been little progress in cases involving them.

In 2008, the Jammu & Kashmir Police claimed four Keralites were killed in an encounter while trying to cross into Pakistan, and identified one of them, on the basis of an ID card, as Shakeel Mohammed of Kovalam. Inquiries at Kovalam, however, showed that Shakeel Mohammed was alive and living peacefully. Two of those killed were later identified as natives of Malappuram. A full account of their terror trip is still awaited.

Information fed to the media by sources in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai about the arrest of Deccan Herald reporter Muthi-ur-Rahman Siddiqui, DRDO scientist Ejaz Mohammed Mirza, Dr Jaffar Iqbal Sholapur and others, after being tailed for four months, raises some questions about the coordinated police action in several states. First reports had said the Uttar Pradesh Police made the arrests, but the state police chief ousted them from the picture. Delhi reports said defence and nuclear establishments were on the terror radar and the Karnataka Police had recovered photographs and sketches of defence installations from them. However, the Bangalore Police said investigations so far showed their only targets were some Hindutva personalities.

Official agencies said the youths had Saudi Arabian links. Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka’s statement that they had used Skype to cover their tracks suggests the police have no proof to show yet. He said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had congratulated the state on busting the terror module. Was it a mere coincidence that the chain of arrests began on the day of the Naroda Patiya judgment?

Here are a couple of gems from the police story. The persons arrested in Maharashtra had maintained contacts with the Bangalore youths through social networking sites. The person arrested in Hyderabad is a nephew of a controversial cleric he used to visit.

The terror hunt and trials in the states are reminiscent of the nightmarish experience of Josef K in Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial. Abdul Nazzer Maudani, a 47-year-old Kerala politician, who was acquitted in the Coimbatore serial blasts case after spending more than nine years in a Tamil Nadu jail without
bail or parole, is now in a Karnataka jail in connection with blasts in Bangalore. He has already spent two years there without bail or parole. With most of the other accused in jails elsewhere in connection with other terror cases, the trial is sure to drag on for years. The police in Kerala and Tamil Nadu have lined up three more cases against him, which can keep him in prison for the rest of his life even if there is no conviction. From serial blasts to serial trials.

Special Investigation Team – Hope or despair of Gujarat genocide victims?

R.B.SREEKUMAR
Countercurrents.org

The categorical order by the Apex Court, on 27-4-2009, on the petition by Mrs. Zakia Jafri, W/o Late Ahsan Jafri, the Congress MP killed in the riots and Mrs.Teesta Setalvad, for Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), evoked great hope and expectations in the victims of 2002 genocidal crimes. The Court ordered the SIT “to take steps as required in Law”. Will this order result in delivery of long delayed justice to the sufferers of 2002 carnage or end up in an exercise to cause the least damage to those who conceived, designed, organized, mobilized, prepared and perpetrated the bloodbath on a group of Indian citizens through motivated violent mobs, under the patronage of the state machinery ?

Either of these outcomes is possible. The ball is in the court of the SIT. Incase the SIT is keen to proceed on positive line, it should examine the massive and comprehensive quantum of evidence confirming conspiracy, course and execution of mass crimes and subsequent prolonged and on-going subversion of the Criminal Justice System(CJS), for denying justice to the victims. The evidence in the FIR by Mrs. Jafri graphically portrays a series of circumstances and developments in the form of deliberate and pre-meditated acts of omission and commission by the Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his collaborators and abettors of mass crimes in the bureaucracy, actualizing the bloodbath. There is sufficient prima facie proof in the FIR to testify this.

The first unavoidable step by SIT “as required in law” will be to register an FIR against the accused, in the relevant police station, assume the powers of the Investigating Officer (IO) under chapter 12 of CRPC and commence collection of evidence by invoking all techniques and procedures, viz , interrogation, search, recovery of incriminating material, use of forensic science and so on. The items of evidence, in the FIR, need to be examined by the SIT, point by point and nugget by nugget, for proving or disproving the material therein and draw up the road map towards the final destination of arrest and prosecution of the accused or submission of final report u/s 173 CRPC.

The accused figuring in the Jafri FIR includes the long serving Chief Minister, other Ministers, Assembly Speaker, serving and retired Senior officers, who were/are the hierarchical supervisors of practically all Gujarat Police staff from Addl. DGP Geetha Johari and Shivanand Jha to the constabulary, who are tasked for investigation against their own supervisors. Strangely the authority for performance assessment of these officers, covering even the work regarding the Jafri FIR, is vested with the same departmental bosses, of whom many are accused persons !!!. The recent observations by Apex Court (May 2009), in the case of granting remand to accused of British nationals murder case are illustrative. The Court said “nothing has been pointed out before us “by the SIT” as to why even the bail granted should be cancelled ….. there was no sufficient or cogent material to justify the need for custodial interrogation of the accused”.

Besides, instances of the SIT staff doing the operational work of investigation failing to prevent disappearance of an accused Minister, guarded by a dozen policemen, and later surfacing with anticipatory bail; accused in riots cases in the electoral posts declared as absconders attending meetings of public bodies; failure to collect additional evidence or recover incriminating material even from a few accused taken on remand; inadequate efforts to arrest absconders; and so on prompt one to conclude that many from State police throwing a spanner in the SIT investigation machine remain unchecked. This tendency of the saboteurs would become quite pronounced in the probe against the CM, unless urgent remedial measures are initiated.

Removal of Gujarat police officers in the Jafri FIR from the SIT; freeing of those assisting the SIT from normal police duties and placing them under full control and authority of the Chairman SIT, on pattern of the Election Commission controlling the State officials during the elections; vesting the Chairman with the authority to initiate the Annual Confidential Repot of all officers assisting him in the SIT; move to the Central Govt. to appoint Special Prosecutors to conduct cases investigated by the SIT u/s 24 CRPC; action to permit the complainants of riots cases to keep their lawyers to present their cases alongwith the PPs; induction of officers with integrity and fortitude from outside Gujarat at the cutting edge level of investigation of riots cases, in the ranks of Police Sub Inspector, Inspector and Dy.S.P.; are a few instant exercises imperative for ensuring purposeful and result-oriented investigation of the Jafri FIR.

Press reports indicate that the SIT so far had only informal discussions with the complainants. Neither their FIR was verified, nor statements recorded, nor fresh FIR registered in the Police station. Informal interaction is not recognized by the CRPC as part of enquiry or investigation. Thus one can deem that the action on Jafri FIR, on the Apex Courts orders, before a month, remains a non-starter. This fact throws up signals of despair and anguish for carnage victims.

Indications are that the highly placed accused in the Jafri FIR are moving to ensure that the SIT will do sheer enquiry and not investigation on the Court orders and submit a report by July 2009. They, then, plan to contest adverse references, if any, in the SIT report and thereby avoid possibility of criminal prosecution. Delaying the process is another tactics.

The accused will also convince the SIT and the Court to treat those numerous acts of omission and commission, which virtually facilitated and actualized the mass carnage in 2002, as routine unintentional administrative lapses calling for departmental action without criminal liability. This stance will make acts like, delay in imposition of curfew in Ahmedabad City on the VHP Bandh Day on 28th Feb., 2002 (When maximum killings in the riots took place) for facilitating parading of dead bodies of Godhra fire victims; non implementation of provisions of Gujarat Police Manual, Communal riots schemes and other instructions on control of communal riots; ignoring complaints of riot victims, appointment of the Sangh Parivar office-bearers as PPs to conduct cases against accused in anti-minority crimes etc; as plain predictable functional indiscretions !!!. The Court will also be assured of State Govt. initiating departmental action against the defaulters. This will give a safe burial of all litigations relating to the 2002 genocide. A brilliant defense!!! Capitalizing on the denial of justice to riot victims, the internationally organized Islamic jihadists, would redouble their efforts to recruit more dejected riot victims to their fold for pursuing terrorist objectives.

Being fully confident about the proven eminence and integrity of the Chairman of the SIT, well meaning citizens are optimistic about positive move from the SIT, soon, against the planners and executioners of 2002 butchery of the innocents in Gujarat.

R.B.Sreekumar is a former Director General of Police, Gujarat, who stood upto Narendra Modi in the immediate aftermath of Gujarat carnage

Indian Muslims welcome Obama’s Cairo speech

By TwoCircles.net News Desk

New Delhi: Muslims have welcomed US President Barack Obama’s overtures to the Muslim World in his Cairo speech today wherein he raised various issues from peace in Middle East, Israel-Palestine relations, Muslim democracies and education of Muslim women.

The All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations, welcomed Obama’s overtures to the Muslim World. The AIMMM President Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan said in a statement here that President Obama has “opened a new leaf with the Muslim World after eight long and agonising years of Bush presidency which sought a totally unnecessary clash with the World of Islam which shares with the United States of America many of its cherished ideals like freedom, brotherhood and equality.”

Dr Khan said: “President Obama’s plans for a new engagement with the Muslim World, especially through investment in education and healthcare, is welcome but one has to wait and watch what will be possible for a tottering American economy.” President Obama’s announcement of a timetable for withdrawal in the near future from Iraq and Afghanistan too is welcome but we will believe it only when we see it happen, Dr Khan said.

Dr Khan, however, said that President Obama failed to acknowledge that while Iran has signed the NPT, Israel has not done so while keeping a huge stockpile of nuclear warheads. Dr Khan added that President Obama was rather mild on Israel and did not tell us what he proposes to do if Israel rejects peace with its neighbours and continues to subjugate Palestinians and occupy their land.

Rasheed Ahmed, President, Indian Muslim Council -USA (IMC-USA) has also welcomed Obama’s approach to dealing with issues that directly concern Muslims and Americans.
“I have heard president Obama's speech in its entirety; I welcome his candid approach to dealing with tough issues, specially issues that directly concern Muslims and Americans. I hope he takes some concrete steps to reinforce what he stated,” said Rasheed Ahmed.

Indian Muslim Council-USA is reaching out to Obama administration to impress the importance of including over 15% of the Muslims that live in India in this discourse and a possible engagement, Ahmed said.

“15% is a large portion of Muslims to leave out. Indian Muslims have great expereince of living in a multi-cultural, democratic nation and a long standing relationship with rest of the Muslim world that will contribute positively towards what the president says he is trying to accomplish,” he added.

Talking to TwoCircles.net BBC Delhi correspondent Iqbal Ahmed and IBN7 TV Channel reporter Ehtesham Khan said they are much impressed with Obama’s candid and positive approach to the Muslim World.

“He was talking from the heart and he was more or less balanced on various issues including Iran, Iraq and Israel-Palestine relations,” says Iqbal referring to Obama’s speech. He got much applause very much in the beginning when he started his speech saying Assalamu Alaikum.

“I appreciate his approach to Islam and America when he says “there is no competition between Islam and America, there is no rivalry between the two,” says Iqbal adding that Obama counted the contributions of Islam to human civilization. Obama acknowledged that Morocco was the first country to recognize America after it got liberation from the British Empire.

On Palestine issue his approach was also positive, says Iqbal. “He compared the conditions of Palestinians with the slaves in America in the past.” He said and while accepting the humiliations of Palestine he also said Israel has right to exist. In the entire speech, Obama didn’t use the word terrorism.

Young IBN7 TV Channel reporter Ehtasham Khan also welcomes Obama’s speech. Ehtesham appreciates Obama’s stress on the need of genuine democracy in the Muslim World.
“He raised various issues like human rights, women rights and democracy in his speech. Though sometimes one might be feeling that he was lecturing the Islamic World, his speech should be taken in positive spirit,” says Ehtesham.