The discharge
of nine Muslim men on Monday for the Malegaon blasts case of 2006 comes as a
blow to the Centre's counter-terrorism policy. In recent years, the
government's counter-terror policy has taken strange twists and turns where
those accused of serious lapses, including extra-judicial killings, have been
let off on bail, and cases relating to terrorist acts being wilfully undermined
by those very people who are supposed to prosecute the perpetrators.
The Malegaon bombings
were a series of blasts near a graveyard in September 2006 during the
observance of Shab-e-barat, when Muslims visit the graves of their relatives.
37 people died and 125 were injured and subsequently — and somewhat improbably
— nine Muslims were arrested. These men got bail in 2011 and in 2013, the
National Investigation Agency (NIA) told the court that they had no evidence to
link them to the blasts. Even then, it took two years for them to be finally
discharged by the court on Monday, meanwhile one of the accused died some
months ago in an accident.
There were a
number of unexplained and unsolved bombings targeting Muslims in many small
towns of Maharashtra between 2003-2008. Pharbani's Mohammidya Masjid was
targeted in November 2003, Madrasa Meraj-Ul-Uloom in Purna and Qadiriya Mosque
in Jalna in August 2004, Malegaon was targeted in 2006 and 2008, the second
time around with Modasa in Gujarat. There were similar blasts elsewhere, too,
where the targets were primarily Muslims — the Mecca Masjid blast of Hyderabad
in May 2007, the twin blasts at the Jama Masjid in April 2006, the Ajmer Sharif
blast in October 2007, and the Samjhauta Express bombing of February 2007.
After flawed
investigations by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and the CBI, the NIA
took up the cases and uncovered a deep conspiracy of some Hindutva elements
who, in some instances, may have even been linked to the upper echelons of the
RSS. Since the arrival of the BJP government in New Delhi, there has been a
systematic effort to undermine the cases.
The senior
public prosecutor in the Malegaon case, Rohini Salian was told to go soft in
the case by senior NIA officers. Thereafter, she was removed as the prosecutor.
The Ministry of Home Affairs officials being forced to ensure that Sharad
Kumar, who had retired as DG of the NIA, would continue to supervise the case
as a contract employee, is another pointer to the state of affairs. It is not
too difficult to discern a parallel and systematic media campaign in favour of
those accused in these cases in recent months.
Undermining
investigation agencies is bad enough, but the bigger problem with the BJP
government's policies is that it is undermining the fight against what Modi and
his government themselves say is the biggest problem that India and the world
confront — terrorism.
There can be
no justification for terrorism — an act that deliberately targets innocent persons
for political effect. But it would be foolish to ignore that certain actions
can play into the hands of terrorists. Terrorist strikes are often motivated
with the goal of deepening sectarian, religious and ethnic faultlines. But
these divides can also be opened up by unaddressed grievances. Draconian sweeps
picking up young Muslim men following terrorist strikes have been bad enough,
but worse has been the conduct of some police forces who have sought to falsely
implicate some of these people in terrorism cases. So far from tackling
terrorism, such action actually create a pool of people who nurse a sense of
grievance and are a standing target for terrorist recruiters.
The Muslims
discharged in the Malegaon case spent five years in jail on what was clearly
fabricated evidence. They are not the only innocents who have been caught up by
crude police investigations which result in people being discharged after years
in jail. In the Mecca Masjid case, more than 100 young Muslims were arrested
and 21 of them suffered torture and prolonged incarceration before their
unconditional release and four of them were acquitted for want of evidence in
July 2014.
Mohammed Amir
Khan, who was in jail for 14 years, was discharged without any conviction in
the multiple cases he was charged with. He has related his story in his recent
autobiography Framed as a terrorist. His story is typical — arrested, tortured,
made to sign blank papers and having to defend himself against multiple cases
foisted on him.
Terrorism
cases are particularly difficult to prosecute. After all, those planning a
terrorist act are hardened persons and take all the precautions to ensure they
are not exposed. Because of widespread use of torture, courts do not accept
confessions as evidence. Yet, there needs to be a balance between the powers of
the police and the rights of someone accused of a crime as heinous as
terrorism.
The balance is
necessary if we are to convince the average Indian, which surely includes our
Muslim fellow-citizens, that India is a country where the rule of law prevails,
a just society which deserves the love and loyalty of its citizens.
Mid Day April 26, 2016
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