[Reader-list] Prosecute ATS for Malegaon

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Prosecute ATS for Malegaon

Mumbai Mirror | Jun 26, 2013, 07.15 AM IST

NIA investigation confirms ACP Shengal falsely accused nine innocent
men and fabricated evidence.

Friday, September 8, 2006: It was one of the holiest days in the
Muslim calendar --Shab-e-Barat - when bombs exploded at the Malegaon
Chowk, and in a mosquecemetery compound, during the afternoon prayers.

Thirty-one people were killed and 300 suffered injuries in the attacks
that visibly targeted Muslims, but the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist
Squad (ATS), in a predetermined manner, immediately blamed Muslim
terrorists and arrested nine from the community.

This case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA)
which, while investigating the Samjhauta Express blast, had uncovered
evidence contradicting the ATS claims.

After reinvestigating the Malegaon case, the NIA has confirmed that
the ATS fabricated evidence against the accused, and that a Hindu
terrorist group had perpetrated the blasts. Had the investigating
officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kisan Shengal,
succeeded in pulling off this miscarriage of justice, nine innocent
people would have possibly been sentenced to death as terrorists, and
their families tarnished with this stigma forever.

According to the ATS, the blasts were perpetrated by Noorul Huda,
Shabbir Masiullah, Raees Mansuri, Dr. Salman Aimi, Dr. Farogh Magdumi,
Mohammed Ali Shaikh, Asif Khan, Mohammed Zahid Ansari and Abrar Ahmed.
The ATS said that some of them had trained in Pakistani camps and that
all had conspired to:

(a) Wage war against the government.

(b) Terrorize people through wanton killing and bomb blasts.

(c) Incite communal riots and disrupt public order.

(d) Indoctrinate Muslims into terrorist and secessionist ideology.

(e) Avail assistance from Pakistani terrorists.

The NIA's chargesheet debunks these claims comprehensively.

It states that:

(a) ATS witnesses for the alleged seizure of the RDX from the accused
denied witnessing these events;

(b) An ATS witness to the alleged seizure of the fake bomb was also
shown by the ATS as being present elsewhere simultaneously for the
seizure of the deceased's clothes.

(c) The ATS's key witness denied seeing the accused making the bomb
and said that "his statement was recorded under duress".

(d) An accused, who the ATS claimed had planted a bomb, was in
Fulsawangi about 480 kms away at that time, and another who, the ATS
claimed procured explosives, sheltered Pakistani terrorists, assembled
the bomb, etc, was in jail.

(e) The blasts were carried outby Lokesh Sharma and others in
furtherance of a larger terror conspiracy.
The ATS's false accusations, drawing on stock communal stereotypes
equating Indian Muslims with anti-national activity, terrorism and
Pakistan, display an institutional bias and communal antipathy
unbecoming a secular state.

They also manifest disrespect for truth and the judicial process,
which, in a police force, is extremely worrying since evidence is
easily fabricated and lives hang in the balance.

Investigation, especially in terrorist cases, must be scrupulously
honest, not merely because of accused's rights, but also for our own
safety: we have to be sure that the real culprits have been arrested
and cannot re-offend. The NIA investigation confirms the belief that
even in serious cases evidence is often fabricated, witness testimony
coerced, incriminating articles planted, and innocent people falsely
accused. Consequently, the administration of justice is brought into
disrepute when judicial verdicts are believed to be based on tainted
evidence. This has happened in numerous high profile cases, including
the Parliament attack case.

Dishonest investigation, custodial torture and extra-judicial killings
by the police are endemic in India and carried out with impunity: no
policeman has been convicted for these offences in Maharashtra for
over 15 years.

Had a few rogue officers been punished, the ATS may not have dared to
fabricate evidence in such an important case. However, courts and
governments have routinely condoned these excesses and we have become
inured. The Malegaon case, an egregious example, must be the starting
point where we show our intolerance for such brazen lawlessness by law
enforcers and make an example of them to deter others.

The NIA's investigation establishes unequivocally that nine persons,
who spent six years in custody, were innocent and were framed by ACP
Shengal on a terrorist charge.

He planted RDX on them from a private stash, coerced a corroborative
statement from a bogus witness and extorted fictitious confessions
from them, which collectively would have sufficed to have them
convicted and sent to the gallows. They are free today only because
the NIA accidentally chanced upon evidence of their innocence. This
must never be allowed to recur.

ACP Shengal must be suspended forthwith, and departmental and criminal
proceedings initiated against him for making false accusations,
fabricating evidence on a capital charge and coercing false testimony
punishable under sections 193-195A, 197, 199, 211, 220 Indian Penal
Code. If he is not prosecuted, other officers will do the same with
impunity, and people will lose faith in the administration of justice.

For all our sakes, and to maintain the integrity of democratic
institutions, it is imperative that the government prosecutes Shengal
in a manner that inspires confidence.

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