By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
Coimbatore : The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which had been probing into the Coimbatore explosion plan case, has found that the cases registered against five Muslim youth in Coimbatore were fabricated by the police, said Ghulam Muhammad, a social activist, in a statement released here Thursday.
The SIT officials filed a report before the Judicial Magistrate here, seeking action against the cops who had fabricated the case. On the basis of the report, the court released the accused persons. Taking strong note of fabrication, the court held the policemen guilty and ordered to take action against them.
The Coimbatore city police had arrested two brothers, Haroon Basha and Malik Basha from Kurichipirivu and three other persons, Sultan and Athikur Rehman from Ganapathy, and K. Samsudeen from Ramanathapuram on July 22, 2006 on the basis of what they termed as ‘secret information’. The first two were activists of the Manitha Neethi Pasarai (MNP), a human rights organisation in Tamil Nadu. They were arrested allegedly for planning to plant explosives in the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital and offices of senior police officers. The police had claimed that they had seized pipe bombs from the accused.
However, the MNP alleged that the whole cases were fabricated by the police and that it was the conspiracy hatched by the Intelligence Assistant Commissioner Rathina Sabhapati that led to the arrests of the youth.
Various Muslim organisations in Coimbatore had submitted memorandums to the senior police officers in this regard.
When the issue came for discussions in the state assembly, the Tamil Nadu police entrusted the probe with the special investigation team of the Crime Branch CID. Meanwhile, the Intelligence Assistant Commissioner Rathina Sabhapati was demoted and
transferred to another place.
The arrests of the youth and the seizure of explosive materials planted earlier by the cops themselves were part of the efforts by Rathina Sabhapati and the Special Branch police inspector Elankovan with the help of some senior police officers for maligning the MNP.
The inner stories of the whole fabrication drama were unfolded when the SIT interrogated those who were arrested, the witnesses to the seizure of explosives and the police officers concerned and examined the First Information Report (FIR) and other documents. The SIT found that the statements and the reports in connection with the arrests were full of contradictions.
"They also pointed out that the narco-analysis and the polygraph tests conducted by the police were exercises in futility. The report filed before the court also pointed out that forged signatures of the police officials who were witnesses to the seizure of explosives were put in the mahassar. The police officers who helped Sabhapati in arranging the pipe bombs were Assistant Commissioners of Police Kumaraswami, Annadurai and Jayapandian," said the statement.
The MNP has now demanded to remove the police officers including Sabhapati from service.