By M Reyaz, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association (JTSA) on Wednesday afternoon released the revised second edition of its famous report fabrication of innocent youths in the name of fighting war against terror by Delhi Police, titled Framed, Damned, Acquitted: Dossiers of a ‘Very’ Special Cell.
The report was released at Jamia Millia Islamia by Professor Upendra Baxi, Professor of Law at University of Warwick and former Vice Chancellor of the University of Delhi; well known civil rights activist Ravi Nair and Advocate Yug Mohit Chaudhry, along with members of the JTSA.
The original report was released in 2012 and had documented sixteen cases where innocents were accused and charged of terrorism but later acquitted by the courts. However, they had to spend as long as 14 years in jail while court cases slowly crawl towards proving their innocence. The revised version has further added eight more cases, many of whom are innocent Kashmiri youths fabricated by the Delhi Police.
Manisha Sethi of JTSA noted that when the first report was released in 2012 it had created stir to due to widespread coverage in the press forcing Delhi Police to give explanations. Delhi Police had then attempted to hide behind its image of credibility and integrity, noting that the high conviction rates speak in their favour. Sethi noted that the high conviction rate is not always in terror related cases, but often under other sections of the IPC.
Advocate Yug Mohit Chaudhry, who comes from Mumbai, gave examples of similar cases of fabrications by Mumbai Police ATS, noting that the problem is across the states and not just confined the one or two cities.
Noted rights activist Ravi Nair urged the members of the civil society to have concerted efforts for police informs and to make sure that the justice is done by making those police personnel involved in fabricating and planting evidence and falsely implicating individuals accountable and bringing them to justice.
Professor Upendra Baxi noted the communal and politicized nature of investigating agencies, adding that institutional reforms are long drawn and difficult process and hence even civil society fails to take any consistent effort.
Panelists suggested that the larger indifference and silence of the civil society in terror cases practically give the erring cops impunity.
Framed, Damed, Acquitted documents 24 cases (16+8) cases in which those accused of being operatives of various terrorist organizations (Al Badr, HUJI, Lashkar), arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police, were acquitted by the courts. Not simply for want of evidence, but because the evidence was tampered with, and the police story was found to be unreliable and incredulous.