Commonalty: The footmarks of the dragon that entrapped innocent people in its dungeon

There is a long shadow slanting across a decade of fateful events in Malegaon which has scared the memory of the minority. It is the shadow of the Additional Superintendent of Police of Bihar origin.

Raj Verdhan Sinha it was whom the natives would find difficult to redeem themselves from for years to come. He reigned supreme much to the annoyance of former MLA Nihal Ahmad who remarked that he was a curse to democracy. But to his acolytes he is “like a tank, rolling over whatever came in his way. A veteran of many skirmishhes”,(1) much like the Israeli tanks.

When Javed Ahmad Abdul Majid was brought to Sinha, he reportedly told his father to go back and sleep. They had got in their arms who they wanted. But the poor former teacher knew his son to be innocent and did not want to part from him as he stepped into the cell of the local prison. Little did the sire know that his son would take more than six years to ever cross out of that threshold! Even so the old man insisted on sleeping on the cold bench meant for the cops on duty rather than losing his son to the police. His spine chilling apprehension came true for his son was innocent. But life for him in the jail and for the family outside the jail turned into a nightmare. Javed was picked up in the notorious arms haul case of 9 May 2006. His elder brother was also marked by the destiny to follow suit when Imam Zahid performing prayer five hundred kilometers away in Phoolsanghvi in Yawatmal, was also picked up on the same cooked up charges. But this time it was the bomb blasts that Hindutva terrorists had caused on 8 September 2006. He also would languish for more than five years in jail to get bail as nothing could be proved against him. Both brothers were innocent. They had come to their youth in late nineties of the previous century the years of the weltanschauung of hunting the Islamic youths in the notorious juggernaut of witch hunt for such bearded and tunic clad devoted Muslims who were prototype of the ignominious ‘clash of civilizations.’

From this spurious hounding Javed returned home on parole in the third week of November 2013. His brother had returned home in the third week of November 2011.

In the interregnum the MCOCA court took seven years to examine seven witnesses out of more than 240 the police especially the ATS had listed. So the court would have to take two centuries and more to decide who is really involved in the arms haul case. Till then Javed will have to remain on bail or back in the dark prison.

What the courts or the police have not bothered to take into consideration is those who volunteered to help them reach the real criminals who had committed crimes against humanity. Among many one such witness was a native of Malegaon:

I, Shakeel Ahmad Mohammad Yusuf, business joining beam thread, age 38, address Samad Habid Compound, Malegaon, am giving this affidavit in writing.

I had gone to buy a new cycle from the shop Santosh Cycle Mart, at 3.30 pm on 14 May 2006. As per the receipt 2635 I bought a cycle in the name of my brother. At that time the son of the owner of the shop, Pius Agarwal, was at the counter. After haggling the price was decided and the cycle was being fitted. I sat inside the shop. There was a phone call on the mobile of Pius. He uttered some code words and then spoke in Hindi. “Whatever material we had put in the well near Ankai has been removed in the presence of Raj Verdhan [Sinha]sahib. I have talked face to face with him regarding the list of names we had supplied to him. All the names have been properly set in the scheme [framing the Muslims]. Everything is perfect. We will sit there and prepare the strategy for the future.”

Raj Verdhan Sinha

I had already read in papers about the seizure of RDX and arms from there so I asked him intimately what the connection with the seizure of arms there is with you. You were talking about the seizure of arms just now. He was stunned. He asked me if I was listening. He was perturbed and told me that it was a different personal matter.

Then he asked me if I would sit there. His daddy would come and prepare the bill for me. He then left the shop soon.

Fifteen minutes later his father came and prepared the bill. I took it and the cycle and left the shop.

When the bombs blasts took place in Malegaon [on 8 September 2006] I read in the paper that the cycle on which the bomb was fitted was purchased from the same cycle shop. Then my suspicion grew that the son of the cycle shop owner was involved in it.

I had informed about this to the additional superintendent of police Anil Kumbhare. I had gone to him along with the MLA Shaikh Rashid Sahib. But I think there was no action taken on the information I had furnished. Therefore I am giving in writing voluntarily this without any greed or under any pressure so that it would help the police to arrest the real criminals.

The affidavit was executed on 6 October 2006.

Javed

Another accused was Bilal Ahmad who collected forty thousand rupees from his penurious family to pay the courts and the police to let him travel to Malegaon for just five hours to see his 85 year old ailing mother. He also claims that he was innocent and there was no proof against him and he along with the rest of the accused would one day be free at last. Because they were all framed. He met his mother on 4 November 2013. At the end he returned to jail before the tears in the eyes could even dry.