That is the agonized cry of endangered advocate Mehmood Pracha. He has been fighting cases of innocent Muslims trapped in terror charges. His discharging his duty is qua professionalism. He says in an interview that when he finds some clues as to who is really a terrorist he “as a citizen, I have a duty to inform for a cognizable offence to the relevant authority and the court.” His obligation to do so has no basis in any kind of bias and he shows partiality to none. He had received death threat from the police of Rajasthan and has complained to the government and requested for security. All this has fallen on deaf ears of the two BJP governments in Rajasthan and at the centre. So the beleaguered lawyer has been assured help from Muslim organizations and others of secular credentials. But such is his professional mindset that he wants to test how far the constitutional obligation and fair treatment will be tendered to him by the courts and the rulers of the day.
The gravamen of his anguish is that the courts are witness to lawyers getting death calls when they plead for justice to the innocent accused. This is every day scene in courts across the country. That is a painful matter to every rightful thinking person. Thus Mehmood Pracha’s fight is not to save any individual but to show the malaise that has spread through the system of investigation where the police and sleuths in order to protect the real culprits actually hunt for Muslims. Though he does not admit it but it is clear the system includes inducement that easily entices the cops to get promotion and earn rewards irrespective of the innocent Muslims’ fate in their hands.
Mehmood says: “After this case [Muhammad Ahmad Kazmi case of attack on Israeli embassy], there is this tacit understanding between me and all my clients in such cases (that I will not fight to defend an individual but to bring out the truth).[2]
… other cases which I took up is horrifying, not only that these people are innocent, but they have been falsely implicated. These are evidences which have come on record by way of the evidence collected by the police or various investigating agencies themselves. They themselves betray not only the innocence of the accused but also betray the fact that real culprits, real terrorists have been shielded, saved by the investigating agencies, which is horrifying and very sad.”
He has proof of wrong doings of numerous officers including the police commissioner of Mumbai Rakesh Maria. But he does not want to file complaint against anyone. However, he would prefer the courts to take the initiative like suo motto notice of it. He has thrown the ball into the government court. If it does not take action or the court ignores to take cognizance it would mean a change in the mindset for the worse for judiciary.
He was threatened with physical assault in the Jaipur court and was dubbed traitor to the country. It is strange that Dinesh Sharma ATS IO called him so for Pracha thinks otherwise: “But my basic condition is that he [the accused] should be innocent and he has love for our country. If these two conditions are satisfied then I take up these cases without charging any fees. So anybody can approach me. This is the service I am doing not only for the Muslims or weaker section of the society like tribals, but this is the service I am doing for my country.”
Many young lawyers had come to hear his argument along many others who were interested in his argument. But no action was taken against those who had abused him although the judge asked him to file a complaint. Well inside the court Sharma interrupted the proceeding as Pracha came to the crux of his argument on June 11, 2015 in Jaipur blast case: “There are only two possibilities for this evidence less case. Either the ATS falsely implicated accused because they are not spirited enough to arrest real culprits or they wish to shield real culprits.” Sharma began to argue as if he was the public prosecutor but the judge ordered him to his seat. When the hearing ended and Pracha was coming out Sharma and 40 supporters attacked him. He even used filthy language. He told him that he would shoot him dead next time he dared to visit the Jaipur court.
Another case where the innocence of the accused is clear is that of Mirza Himayat Baig. He was in Aurangabad when the German Bakery was bombed and yet Rakesh Maria the new chief of ATS accused him of planting the bomb. The NIA had found that Baig was not involved and so had the Delhi police’s Special Cell and Central Crime Branch of Bangalore Baig’s case was also investigated by the NIA, and they have given a finding that he was not involved. Besides two other agencies, Delhi Police’ Special Cell and CCB (Central Crime Branch) Bangalore too have said that Himayat Baig was not involved. It points to the murky dealings of Maria.
There are numerous examples of his suspicious role. He it was who had clearly interrupted Commissioner of Police Hasan Gafoor’s order to Heman Karkare to report him. Instead Maria had sent him to his death in the lane to Cama hospital, near the Crime Branch. That is the mother of all terror attacks, 26/11. In the case of the poor Baig the case is simply pathetic as Baig had told the court that he would be 18th person to die in the German Bakery case. He was innocent and brave to utter this in the court and burst out weeping. Did this not reach the heart of Maria? Or is he bereft of human emotion.
But Pracha has his own way: “The fact remains that three investigating agencies, my own understanding of the case, the charge sheet and the subsequent events, all point to one fact that the Maharashtra ATS led by Mr Rakesh Maria was responsible in not only falsely implicating Himayat Baig, but also in the process actively saving the real terrorists and for that I say that the police officers involved, including Mr Rakesh Maria should be arrested for conducting activities which are terror related. He has committed offense prima facie which are terror cases and he should be arrested as a terrorist.”
This raises the spectre that the Bakery could have been was bombed another set or by the two Hindutva extremists,Ashok Bhaleraon and Sharad Mohol , who were also accused by Qateel Siddiquy to be responsible for the Dagduseth Halwai temple blast. The duo had killed Qateel a day before he was to be handed over to the Delhi police. Did Maria arrange this in real time?
In the Jungli Maharaj road blast of 2012 the public prosecutor and the police were “adversarial and vindictive.” Even the state of Maharashtra was vindictive when it said in the Zameeruddin case that Unlawful Activity (Prevention) Act and MCOCA work in different domains.
In a rare epiphany Pracha says where Shahid Azmi could not succeed: “I am in the process of showing them the majesty of law is far above all these criminal police officers, be them in higher places, or highest places. I will catch hold of every single terrorist involved in such activities, through law, be it the police officers or their political bosses, or their bureaucratic bosses.”
“is is what I mean, when I say, that these police officers are acting like terrorists because they are aiding and abetting the real terrorists and catching hold of the innocent people to save the real terrorists. Under section 15 to 20 of the UAPA, these are terrorist activities, be it whether they are committed by the police officers or common citizens because law is equal for all.”
Jaipur case is primarily aimed at dividing the people on religious lines. This also happened in Ajmer and elsewhere the chief minister Vasundhra Raje rightly assessed the situation when she said "I condemn this blast. They have tried to ruin the communal harmony of the state but they will not succeed. Never in the history of Rajasthan such a heinous incident has happened and this is not an attack on the state but on the nation". [3]But what she must have known that her own party and RSS do not eye communal harmony as desirable thanks to their poll calculations. By arresting 15 Muslims on flimsy grounds and then charging them with terrorism is against unity and real truth.
There have been similar cases of lawyers thrashed and beaten when they argued in defense of the innocent Muslims accused in terror chanrges. Paikar Farooq was also attacked in the same case.
The society is turned so cussed because of wrong publicity by the media that people become emotional and lose their reasoning faculty. The biased prosecutors and media create hostile atmosphere against the minority following in the footsteps of the investigators who want to frame the Muslims. Pracha broke fresh ground by refusing to toe the line of the police or the media. It is in this endeavour that he utters the essence of populism at its worse, the collective conscience. “The necessary corollary of taking up these cases is the fact that if you involve innocent people in these matters and satisfy the ‘collective conscience’ of the society then you are letting go off the real terrorist who will now be bolder, knowing that they are not being caught and renewed vigour.” Mansoor Peerbhoy is still in prison though the CFSL report shows that he was not the person who sent the email now was his brother who tookhim to Mumbai. There is no record of the brother’s car moving to Mumbai from Pune. Kenneth Haywood who had sent the message was allowed to leave the country, nay he was also permitted to come back and collect his things and depart. This is shielding of the real culprits and it is done by corrupt police officials.
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[1] inquilab June 14, 2015 [2]http://twocircles.net/2014mar19/substantive_evidence_against_police_aiding_and_abetting_real_terrorists_advocate_pracha#.VZNosFJHLCN
[3] "Raje talks tough, says revive POTA", IBN Live, May 14, 2008
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