By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: Had the cops succeeded in picking the youth (Aamir) from Shaheen Bagh, the case could have gone the Sohrabuddin way, says filmmaker Shubhradeep Chakravorty who made the documentary “Encountered on Saffron Agenda” based on fake encounters in Gujarat.
Talking to TwoCircles.net Chakravorty said there is a striking similarity between the modus operandi of the Noida Police in Shaheen Bagh case and that of Gujarat Police in Sohrabuddin case and some other similar cases there.
Shubhradeep Chakravorty
“Shaheen Bagh case has proved one point very clear: police are involved in such things, they are picking people with some criminal background and making them terrorists kill them in encounters. They are functioning illegally in such cases. These things stand proved after the Shaheen Bagh case,” says he whose documentary “Encountered on Saffron Agenda” deals with four encounters in Gujarat including that of Sohrabuddin and Ishrat Jahan.
Full text of the interview:
How illegal was the Noida Police attempt to nab an alleged criminal from Shaheen Bagh area while going there without informing local police, in civil dress and in a car with no registration number?
Police need to function within the law. The law doesn’t permit lifting of somebody without a warrant and without giving him proper reasoning and without presence of independent witnesses. The Noida Police were not following the procedure for arrest. They had not informed the local police and were picking the man (Aamir) like criminals kidnap someone (they came in a car with no registration number). They were acting like criminals. They were picking him without the protection of law. That was totally an illegal act. There is no doubt about it. Everyone should condemn it.
Do you think Shaheen Bagh case could have become a Sohrabuddin had the locals not prevented the cops from picking the man?
Thought it is a hypothetical question there is striking similarity between the modus operandi of the Noida Police in Shaheen Bagh case and that of Gujarat Police in Sohrabuddin case and some other similar cases there. I worked on some encounters in Gujarat. I made a documentary “Encountered on Saffron Agenda” on the encounters whose victims were Sohrabuddin, Sameer Khan Pathan, Ishrat Jahan Javed and Shariq Jamal. All four were picked illegally. In police parlance uthana (picking) happened in all these cases. They were picked, detained and subsequently at an opportune time and in a secluded place were killed in a staged manner. The whole story started with uthana (in which the Noida Police failed). In that context we can say that had the cops succeeded in picking the youth Aamir from Shaheen Bagh, the case could have gone the Sohrabuddin way. This case needs to be investigated thoroughly.
How can the guilty Noida cops be brought to book?
There is a need for the Muslim community and secular sections of the society to act together to fight the case in the court of law strongly. Only when such cops get sentenced, such things can be prevented from recurring. After Vanjara (Gujarat IPS officer) was sent to jail in Sohrabuddin fake encounter it is now difficult for people like Modi to find an IPS officer to kill another Sohrabuddin. And it happened because of law. Law is there for our rescue.
We need to put together our act in Shaheen Bagh case also to get the guilty cops convicted in the court of law. Shaheen Bagh case has proved one point very clear: police have been involved in such things, they are picking people with some criminal background and make them terrorists and kill them. They are functioning illegally in such cases, these things stand proved after the Shaheen Bagh case. In a way Shaheen Bagh case is a big eye opener. If you want to proceed you have to take legal action because only court of law can punish them. Because we can make a strong case of Shaheen Bagh, the cops can be convicted.
Given the details coming out of the Batla House encounter, don’t you think it was a fake encounter?
It should be investigated thoroughly by an independent investigating body having professional tradition like CBI. As the Delhi Police participated in the encounter, their investigation will put only their version. When the community which is blamed for terrorism has credible doubt on the encounter, the Government of India has obligation to make the facts clear. Why weren’t the post mortem reports made public? If you are saying something, you need to prove it also. Otherwise people will doubt you. The police said they recovered guns. Who saw them recovering the weapons? Were there any independent witnesses? They are throwing the rules to the wind.
Serial blasts in Delhi, then the Batla House encounter and then Godhra carnage interim report blaming Muslims for the train fire, all these to make a profound case that Muslims are terrorists and the community is abetting terrorism.
How do you see extra-judicial killings taking place in the country?
Extra-judicial killings in which most of the time Muslims are victims have further alienated the community. These killings show that Muslims are not worth court trial and they are being killed going out of law. This situation will harm both the community and the country. Such killing should be condemned strongly. From the point of human rights also, they are deplorable. Establishment is not visualizing the danger.
A number of media persons from TV news channels were there covering the incident of Shaheen Bagh but none of them telecast the incident. How do you see media’s role in presenting such issues?
First the solution. There is a need for national Muslim newspaper or TV news channel to present their case and to counter the campaign against them.
Muslims (14% of total population) have no nationwide newspaper, nor have they any TV channel. In Kerala, there is Madhyamam run by Jamaat-e-Islami. It is perceived as neutral paper. At all India level there is none like that. Muslims are at the mercy of so called neutral and secular media. How these secular media is working is known to everybody. They are controlled by industrial houses. They are pumping money and get favour from the government in other way. They are not profit making business. They are running it because they are eyeing for other things for their businesses. So their media is actually doing PR work.
Crime reporters now are wholly depending on police briefings. They put the police version exactly as the assertion of truth without any investigation. When you are putting only police version (prosecution’s version) and not that of the defence then you are acting as biased person.