By Irfan Engineer,
From the Final Report submitted by the Additional D.S.P., C.B.C.I.D. (SIT), Chennai, in Cr. No. 1067 of 2007 before the Hon’ble Judicial Magistrarte No. VII, Coimbatore, the following facts can be established:
A First Information Report was filed in Podanur Police Station bearing CR No. 1067/2006 u/s 120(B) of Indian Penal Code and S. 5 of Explosive Substances Act, 1908. S. 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code lays down punishment for criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable with death, life imprisonment or rigorous imprisonment for a term of two years or more.
According to the FIR, in the early hours of July 22nd, 2006, Inspector of Police Mr. S. Palraj received reliable information that two persons Haroon Basha and Malik Basha, with extremist tendencies planned to blast bombs at several places through out the city of Coimbatore to create terror in public mind. The said information, according to the FIR was entered into the general diary of the Podanur Police Station at about 2.30 a.m., advance information was sent to the Judicial Magistrate and a police party with witnesses proceeded to search their houses.
Haroon Basha’s house was searched at about 4.15 a.m. Haroon Basha, according to the FIR was arrested at 5.15 a.m., recorded his confession and the witnesses willingly attested the entire proceeding of search, confession and arrest of Haroon Basha. The confession of Haroon Basha was to the effect that he and his brother Malik Basha and four others were members of an organization called MNP i.e. Manitha Neethi Pasari (Justice for Human Beings). The six of them wanted to take revenge for the atrocities committed on Muslims, and this they decided to do so by creating terror and fear in the minds of public of Coimbatore. Their other motive behind creating terror and fear was also to ensure that only their organization could grow in Coimbatore. Haroon’s confession further stated that in order to create terror in the minds of the public, they decided plant bombs at Coimbatore Medical College Hospital. All the six entered into a conspiracy for that purpose. Haroon Basha not only willingly and readily gave confessional statement without blinking, but also implicated his brother. Why Haroon Basha would so willingly give confessional statement almost immediately on his arrest and in his house is left to your imagination.
After obtaining confessional statement of Haroon Basha, as per the FIR, Inspector Palraj reached Malik Basha’s residence at 6.15 a.m., seized incriminating documents and arrested him at 7.15 a.m. and recorded his confessional statement which was similar to that of Haroon Basha. By 8.45 a.m., after intimation to the Judicial Magistrate, the other two accused – Thippu Sulthan and Athikur Rehman were arrested and their confessional statements were obtained which again were similar to those of Haroon and Malik Basha and bombs and components of the Bombs were recovered. Like Haroon and Malik Basha, Atikhur Rehman and Thipu Sulthan also willingly readily and immediately on arrest gave their confessional statements on the spot they were arrested, i.e. their residence.
The Islamic terrorists are not hardened criminals after all and are waiting for the police to ask them about the conspiracy and they immediately confess to all the details. The entire conspiracy for bomb blasts was solved within about 5 1/2 hours, confessional statements recorded in presence of witnesses, all the incriminating material recovered and paper work after following all the procedures and also intimating the Judicial Magistrate at odd hours (when s/he might be sleeping) from time to time. In fact if the judiciary had been obliging, in the next 5 1/2 hours, or perhaps days, the accused might even have been convicted – so complete and flawless the paper work of 5 1/2 hours was.
By 2.15 p.m., all the accused were brought to the police station and Crime No. 1067/2006 was registered on 22-July-2006. On July 23rd, 2006 the accused were produced before the Judicial Magistrate and remanded to Central Prison Salem. In order to obtain police remand, the Police filed affidavit that they wanted to investigate the source of explosives from the accused and recorded a few more statements and made further arrests. The case was then handed over to ACP of Coimbatore, Mr. S. Nazimuddin and he again recorded the statements of the accused.
Members of Manitha Neethi Pasari (Organisation for Justice to Human Beings) received a complaint that false and fabricated case has been filed against the aforementioned accused. Advocate Jinnah and Advocate Azhagmani undertook their own investigations. They collected enough evidence to prove that the FIR was false and fabricated and that the accused were innocent. They held a press conference and sent representation to the Home Secretary and Inspector General of Police based on their investigations and the evidence they managed to collect.
Due to their persistent efforts, the case was then transferred to C.B.C.I.D., which constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to carry out further investigations. After investigations, the SIT led by Addl. Supdt of Police, C.B.C.I.D., Chennai, filed the Final Report before the Coimbatore Judicial Magistrate No. VII. In the Final Report, the SIT noted that neither Inspector of Police Podanur nor the ACP Nazimuddin had prepared a rough sketch of the scene of crime. There were no photographs of the scene of crime; and the source of bombs and their components that were seized was not probed and therefore not entered into the Station Diary. No incriminating material was recovered that could link Haroon and Malik Basha to the crime and still they were arrested.
Strangely, no senior officer visited the place of crime even though bomb blast is a serious crime that can take several lives and much worse, it is usually considered as waging war against the state. They further concluded that Haroon and Malik Basha were not arrested on the date and time mentioned in the FIR but they were arrested and brought to the office of Police Commissioner between 11.30 p.m. and 12.00 midnight on 21-July-2006 and that no incriminating material was recovered from their houses.
The police officials named in the FIR as having accompanied Inspector Palraj on 22-7-06 for search, seizure and arrest of Haroon and Malik Basha and Athik and Thipu Sulthan, were not present during the operation at all as they were present during the morning roll call at the Police Station!! No recovery was made of the Explosive materials and components of bombs and right from the FIR, seizure mahazar, panchnamas, arrest panchnamas, confessional statements and witnesses, every single document was false, fabricated and concocted.
Out of the two revenue officials called as panchas, one of them denied that he had signed any panchnama and the handwriting expert also opined that the signature on the Panchnama did not tally with the admitted signature of the Revenue official. The other revenue official stated that he was called in the police station and asked to sign the panchnama, (and he must have willingly obliged the police for the great cause of fixing the “Muslim terrorists”).
The concluding para 55 of the Final Draft states, “To put it in nut shell, investigation discloses that the FIR in B.13 Podanur P.S. Cr. No. 1067/2006 u/s 120(B) IPC r/w 5 of Explosives Substances Act 1908 and seizure mahazars relating to the so called recovery of bombs are fabricated and false. The statements of witnesses recorded by me are conclusively confirms the above said facts and hence, I am treating this case as ‘false’.” The accused have been granted bail but not yet discharged. Adv. Lajapathi Roy representing them informed me that the accused would be filing proceedings for compensation.
Perusing the Final Report of the SIT leaves one with sadness at the pitiable condition of human rights in India, particularly of the Muslims. While the SIT should be commended for brining out the fact that a false FIR and fabricated investigations had been launched against the accused of Cr. No. 1067/2006, the Final Report (which means there will be no more investigations) is entirely silent about the motive behind implicating the accused of Cr. No. 1067/2006 and who was responsible for false FIR and fabricated investigation.
The minimum that was incumbent upon the SIT was to fix responsibility. Was it Inspector Palraj who started it all by arresting the accused, recording their confessional statements even before the FIR could be registered and preparing false seizure mahazars? Or were Annadurai, Asstt. Commissioners of Police who arrested Haroon and Malik Basha from Itteri, or Kumarasamy, Asstt. Commissioners of Police, who arrested Athik Rehman and Thipu Sultan or Jayapandian, Asstt. Commissioners of Police, who arrested Samsudeen from Ramnathapuram? All the accused were arrested almost simultaneously from their respective places by the three ACPs belonging to the Intelligence Section. Inspector Palraj, who is lower official than the three ACPs might have just registered the case after the accused were arrested. The fact that three ACPs acted simultaneously points to the fact that they too were acting under somebody’s orders. Or was Rathina Sabapathy, ACP, Intelligence Section, responsible who received the explosives in the Commissioner of Police office in the wee hours of 22-July-2006? The Final Report of the SIT is silent on who was behind this farce and making the three ACPs act in the manner in which they did.
The accused Muslim youth were alleged to be members of Manitha Neethi Pasari (Justice for Human Beings – MNP for brevity) – a banned organization. The story is too familiar now to hazard a second guess. The unnamed Higher Official thought a bomb could be planted in public place and “recovered”. Some Muslims could be arrested for that and the Police could take credit for arresting “Muslim terrorists”, and further walk away with promotions, medals and good will of Hindus. If a few innocent Muslims have to pay the price and if promotes enmity or ill-feelings between Hindus and Muslims (which is an offence under Sec. 153-A of IPC), so be it some Muslims can be sacrificed for the sake of their out of turn promotions and medals. Or was the motive to prove that Narendra Modi and people of his ilk right that “All terrorists are Muslims”, conveniently forgetting the religion of LTTE cadres, Khalistanis and Maoists in Nepal and in India, who according to US are terrorists as well?
MNP put posters demanding that the conduct of Asstt Commissioner of Police, Intelligence Section, Rathna Sabapathy in arresting innocent Muslim youth and projecting them as terrorists and members of their organization (threreby damaging the goodwill of the MNP) be investigated. The police registered a case against A.K. Ameen, aged about 29 years u/s 153-A of IPC and 7 (1) (A) of CLA Act in Cr. No. 75 of 2008 for affixing the posters. The posters merely demanded dismissal of those responsible for arresting innocent Muslim youth branding them as terrorists.
A.K. Ameen in his anticipatory bail petition denied that he had put up any posters which caused any damage to public tranquility or enmity between two communities and alleged that he was falsely implicated and therefore be enlarged on bail. The larger question however is, can the police first arrest Muslim youth in false case brand them as terrorists, and when action with due process of law is demanded against the guilty official, can such a demand be said to promote enmity between two communities? Mercifully the Madras High Court granted the anticipatory bail petition of A.K. Ameen but the larger question still remains – will the police official/s who planted bomb and then arrested innocent Muslim youth be brought to justice? Or will he/they get their normal promotions as the police officials found guilty of murder during 1992-93 Mumbai riots by Srikrishna Commission as if they did not commit any wrong by arresting innocent Muslim youth misusing their authority? That depends on the strength of Human Rights movement in India.