By Abdul Basith, TwoCircles.net,
Thiruvananthapuram: “Once accused in a case, the normal way out is to undergo trial and wait until the court permits us to present our arguments and evidences. It is towards the very end of the trial I will be given a chance to have my say. But I can’t wait for that to happen because, as long as the trial is a never ending process, the conspirers against me and the Muslim community in Kerala are on a safe zone,” said the Kerala based leading human rights lawyer S Shanavas while talking to TCN over phone.
He added, “I prefer heading to their post by filing another suit seeking justice. The state mediated police witch-hunt against me is now about to ruin my professional life as an advocate and I can’t sit waiting.”
Shanavas was earlier arrested on April 30th as the third accused by the High-Tech Cell of Kerala crime branch on charges of conspiring to leak intelligence communication in the infamous Email surveillance that rocked Kerala a few months ago and he is out on bail now. It was the leading Malayalam daily Madhyamam in their weekly issue carried an exclusive scoop alleging that the Kerala Crime Branch Hi-tech Cell was snooping on the emails of nearly 250 Muslim individuals and institutions.
The Crime branch accusation has been that the then SI – S Biju leaked the Intelligence SP, KK Jayamohan’s letter written to the high-tech Cell along with a list of whose e-mail details were to be snooped into. The Crime branch says it was Shanavas who advised Biju to handover the details to Madhyamam, in order to get it published and so accuses him of taking part in a conspiracy.
The strange recent move from the Kerala Police has been to bring a major twist in the case by even accusing S Biju of forging the letter in the name of Intelligence SP Jayamohan. It is in such circumstance that Shanavas has decided to approach the court seeking important details regarding the case.
At first it was the museum police which registered cases on the leakage. The SP’s letter asking the high-tech cell to snoop into the email privacies of 260 Keralites out of which 250 belong to the Muslim community even goes to the extent of baselessly associating them with the banned organisation SIMI. Shanavas says, “No details of this case registered by museum police has been submitted before the court”.
One of his applications before the court has been to obtain details regarding the letter and documents mentioned in the FIR. The home department have earlier stated that they obtained nine GB data from 23 e-mail service providers.
Shanavas has also made an application to provide details of this 9 GB hard disk with regard to each e-mail id mentioned. He has requested for the tapes of Kerala CM Oommen Chandy’s immediate statement before the channels on this regard as well.
The Kerala CM Oommen Chandy who was then handling the home affairs as well, along with former DGP Jacob Punnoos came up with explanations – where they admitted that the Intelligence SP Jayamohan’s letter linking the 260 email address holders to the banned organisation SIMI was an unintentional error from the officer’s part. These statements from the CM and former DGP were even broadcasted by seven Malayalam News Channels. Shanavas has hence also requested before the court to ask those channels to make those tapes available.
Shanavas appears for the youths alleged with SIMI links in the Wagamon, Panayikulam cases and his earlier arrest was exactly on the eve of the SIMI Tribunal sitting in Kerala. He has been appearing before the SIMI tribunal for years and has been a thorn in eyes of Kerala Police through his arguments against the continuation of ban against SIMI before the Tribunal.
On arrest, the Crime Branch sources gave out reports like they have seized SIMI related documents on raiding Shanavas’s office. “Those were documents related to my clients accused in the Wagamon, Panayikulam SIMI camps. The Crime Branch haven’t until now submitted those documents before the court. ” Shanavas says.
The Wagamon, Panayikulam SIMI camp cases are to be taken for hearing on December 24 and his clients are about to leave him because he is not in possession with those documents to be presented before the court. Shanavas need those documents seized from his office by the Crime branch or otherwise it is equal to preventing him from carrying out his profession.
He has now filed these applications in the same court considering the conspiracy case against him and he strongly believes that these documents and evidences he requested are quite capable of revealing many things the Crime Branch doesn’t want the public to know.
“I am looking forward to taking this struggle to a further level; I won’t get shattered even if my file suit gets dismissed because that is what I am looking forward to, to take it to the high court and supreme court. I hope this file suit will turn an important pointer towards how far the Kerala state machineries and Judiciary have gone forward in the ‘Gujarat way’, especially taking into consideration a few recent Kerala court verdicts on the Love Jihad issue”, says the eminent rights lawyer.
Related links in TwoCircles.net:
1, Cyber surveillance: Adv Shanavas gets bail
2, Muslim politicians, journalists under cyber surveillance in Kerala ?
3, SIMI tribunal resumes hearing in Kerala; Lawyer says cases fabricated
4, Alliance formed to fight against new ‘emergencies’ in the country