By TCN News,
Mumbai: He was picked by Mumbai Police to make a witness against some people. When he refused to do so as he didn’t know them, he was tortured and threatened to be killed and to implicate his brothers in a blast case. When he didn’t break, he was taken on remand in various theft cases – one after another – and tortured and again threatened for over a month. When he survived and again refused to witness against unknown persons, he was made an accused in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case. He is Afzal Usmani.
Usmani provided the details of the horrific journey in police custody to a Mumbai court on 11th February 2009. His letter to an MCOCA court in Mumbai has now come out.
Before becoming a terror accused, Usmani was a small businessman. With his wife and three children he had been residing in Mumbai. He had been living in the city since his childhood. He would own and run a bakery shop there. His weak point, it seems, that moved the police to lay hand on him without thinking twice was some petty cases he had against him in court. And this is true about many of the Muslim terror accused and some killed in encounters as ‘terrorists’ – like Sohrabuddin Sheikh of Gujarat.
Afzal Usmani was picked on 26th August 2008 when he was travelling in Godaan Express to come to attend his court date of 27th August 2008 of an earlier case at Sewri Session Court. He was picked up from the train by the police of the Mumbai DCB CID. They told him they wanted to make him a witness in some case. He was presented before a magistrate next day and taken on remand and for next one month he remained on remand after remand, tortured and threatened to force him to give witness against some people who were held in the Ahmedabad serial blasts case of last month i.e. 26th July 2008. When he survived all and didn’t budge he was produced on 24th September 2008 along with four other persons, before the Esplanade Court in Mumbai, and again taken on remand and the same journey continued till he was presented in an MCOCA court in October 2008.
Excerpts from his letter to Special MCOCA Court in February 2009:
— On 26th August, 2008, as I was travelling via Godaan Express to come to attend my court date 27th August, 2008 of an earlier case at Sewri Session Court, I was picked up from the train by the police of the Mumbai DCB CID, who said that, they wanted to make me a witness in some case.
— I was produced on 27th August, 2008 before the Honorable Magistrate at the Esplanade Court and my remand was obtained. That I asked as to which case I had been brought under and I was told that I had been remanded in a case of theft. I requested to be allowed to meet my relatives but I was not allowed to do so. I was taken to a flat at Wadala and I was threatened that both my brothers would be brought and detained and beaten up and be implicated in a case.
— After that I was told that there are some persons against whom I have to give witness in a bomb blast case and if I do so I would be let loose in the case. When I refused, I was brought to Crime Branch Unit No.III and tortured with electric shock to such an extent that I fell unconscious two or three times. I was threatened that I would be killed and my body too would not be handed over to my family and that my brothers would be implicated in bomb blast cases. That I was neither taken to a lock- up nor allowed to meet my family and I was told that if I complained anything in court then my brothers too would be brought and kept with me. In this manner I was transferred from one police remand to another in various theft cases in which I was falsely implicated. Whenever my police custody remand was refused to be extended by the Honourable Magistrate court and magisterial custody was ordered, I would not be taken to jail, but a new case would be instituted against me and a new police remand taken in a new theft case. This continued for a period of almost a month.
— I was produced on 24th September, 2008 along with four other persons, before the Honourable Esplanade Court and my Police remand was taken and I was then put in a lock-up.
— On 7th October, 2008, I was produced before the Honourable Special MCOCA Court. I was frightened and could not say anything. After somedays I was taken to a DCP. The DCP too said that I was to be made a witness in this case. I told my whole story to the DCP and explained that I don’t know anyone or anything in the matter. The DCP however told me to think over the matter for a day and gave me an indirect threat by telling me that this was a way of saving my brothers. On the next day I was again taken before the DCP who told me to write my name on a plain paper. I wrote my name on a plain paper.
— I was the taken to the Esplanade Court. I told the Honourable Magistrate that I am innocent. He took the names of certain persons, whose names I did not know and I told him that I did not know such persons. The Mgistrate then showed me a paper on which my name had been written and I explained to the Magistrate that the DCP Officer had said that they would make me a witness and let me go and had told me to write my name on a plain paper. A Police Officer who was involved in the investigation and had tortured me was present when I was present before the Magistrate.
— After this I was taken to Crime Branch Unit III. I was given a paper and told to memorise it and the next day a video film was made. When I refused I was given electric shocks and was severly abused and threatened.
— I am innocent. I do not know any of the persons who have been involved in this case alongwith me. I have not committed any crime and am innocent. Earlier too I have had MCOCA put on me and have been acquitted. Once more MCOCA has been applied on me and I ask for Justice. How can I give witness against persons whom I do not even know. After being acquitted in my earlier MCOCA case, I was out on bail in two other cases which I was attending regularly. Now I have been branded as a terrorist and have had MCOCA applied on me.