Appointment of Antani as New Home Secretary:Modi cocking a snook at the present brouhaha over the sidelined cops

At present there is a noisy and overexcited critical response and display of interest and trail of publicity over the sidelined post Godhra cops. So much so that even national mainstream papers are taken in and forget to look closely into the matters and unearth the truth and publish it rather than being carried away by sops dished out to them. The government of Nrendra Modi in Gujarat has promoted MD Manoj Antani as Home Secretary. He was the DSP of Bharuch in 2002. Showing open contempt to the civil society, Modi has dared to take them on. But his shrewd move though bewitching some for the time being has also given away the truth.

It has been mistakenly reported that Antani was a sidelined cop who did not carry out the instructions of Modi to let the Hindus wreak havoc on the Muslims in revenge for the train fire on the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002. The truth is far from this. He on his own opted for the central government deputation from the Gujarat lot because he feared his record was quite incriminating, to say the least.

If the police officer KK Mysorewalla’s remaik that there was order from the above not to save the Muslims from the marauding hordes made the title of a report by a Human Rights book on Gujarat 2002, the remark of Antani will one day become a much more publicized title of another book. Antani had led his police men break the doors of Muslims in Bharuch city. He took away sixteen Muslim youths and tortured them while in detention. The torture started when he ordered his men in uniform “These Muslims are filthy people, burn them to ashes!” (Yeh sab kshan Muslims hain, unko jala do aur khakh kar do!) The blood curdling beating started and continued.

The highly inhuman and criminal behavior of Antani comes in a context which is even more horrifying. In an area of Bharuch called Bahar ki Undai a blood thirsty mob was led by the Home Guards and also some police on March 19, 2002. The Home Guards opened fired on Muslims and killed some. Home Guard Bharat Sunderlal Bhatia killed Sayyid Sirajuddin Jibbo. Another Home Guard Deepak Samardas Rana killed a woman called Najma. Another Muslim who was injured in the firing was Shabbier Khan.

This crowd had come from Dandia Bazaar where Deepak Samardas Rana lived. He led the mob to Undai. He had deserted his post which was 200 meters away in another area. As he led the mob, those behind him started a hail of stones at the Muslims after he had opened fire on the Muslims.

The subsequent breaking of doors and arrest on the orders of Antani was a sequel to this. Most notable feature is that this recrudescence of pogrom happened full seventeen days after Modi’s stipulated three days sanction for anti Muslim violence.

The same white powder that burnt down to ashes Gulberg society was used in Bharuch too with the same disastrous effect. How could hundreds of packets and bottles of the powder find their way to these farfetched places? What more proof would the courts need to judge the genocidal fury unleashed on the Muslims by Modi and lieutenants, like Antani? “Burn them to ashes” (unko jala dalo aur khkh kar do!) thundered the man who is now Home Secretary to Modi.

There is a base side to human nature of some. In the present case it is, like master like servant. It is not confined by one’s being born in any particular faith. It is such a depravity that its greed makes man feel no shame, let alone any remorse. An episode that local Narmada channel had telecast live was the collector of Bharuch Anju Sharma and DSP Manoj Antani gorging on cashew nuts and almonds. These two had let the mobs of Hindus break open the shops of Muslims in Barelikho in Bharuch on February 28. The marauders passed on the booty stolen from the dry fruits shops of Muslims. They ingratiated the ‘sahebs’ for their largess in allowing them to loot and then burn. These officials of Modi administration were carrying out the instructions that Modi had given them in the late night meeting at his residence only twelve hours ago.

Question: How does one prove all these accusations?
Answer: The strike called by Vishwa Hindu Parishad on February 28 started the three days stipulated time Modi gave the mobs to take revenge upon the Muslims when his police would let them vent their anger. His satrap Viral Desai was the boss of VHP unit of Bharuch. Antani was its DSP of the town. Aju Sharma its collector. Given the kind of situation that was created there the order passed from the administration to the religious wing of the party which ruled the state. After all, the chief minister and the Prime Minister Vajpayee and his Home Minister LK Advani always felt proud to be members of Rashtra Swayamsevak Sangh. VHP and BJP are different configurations of the same.

On the same channel Desai had unsheathed his sword and gave a call for the strike while shouting in his fervor “It is official secret that the police are with us in this” (“Yeh under ki baat hai, police hamare saath hai.”) By no means was it an empty boast. The sword struck its victims while the hordes encored the slogan “Yeh under ki baat hai, police hamare saath hai.” The police and the hordes shared the open secret and so there was no need to deny it. The police and the government never bothered to issue any denial. It was a foregone conclusion.

Antani was not sidelined. A punitive action was taken against him because the High Court was hearing a case. In that case Antani had made a blunder. There was some trouble in another part of Bharuch called Haji Khana Bazaar right on March 18 when Hindus had gathered in the house of Bhupender Manilal Gandhi. It followed attack on Taiba mosque. The attackers included Desai. He was in the crowd which demanded the imam to hand Muslim youths accused of unlawful gathering, under section 144. When the magistrate Mr Trivedi came there and Muslims demanded release of the seven youths the police had caught, Desai prevailed upon the magistrate and the section was changed to 307. The youths could not be released. As if this was not enough, Antani botched up and joined the 16 youths he had forced his men to break doors and drag out and detain and put their names in the same FIR. How could the sixteen in one place Undai be shown to be in a far away Haji Khana Bazaar case?

Therefore, it would be appropriate to say that Antani was shunted to avoid the blot from becoming too prominent and when the transfer to the central government deputation came handy he was allowed to escape. And now he is reinstated with promotion in office and dignity!

How could he be described, as in the words of the national mainstream paper, ‘sticking to the rule book during the riot’? At long last his master should now heed the rule of law, the rule book ceases to matter before the rule of law.

The Gujarat Genocide and the Man who craftily wrought it

Chief Minster Narendra Modi of Gujarat fashioned everything since he contested election early in 2002. This includes manufacturing rumour for consumption by the people like saying that Ahsan Jafri had used his gun on the crowd. A man who campaigned against him for February 23 elections was the former Member of Parliament, Ahsan Jafri. He correctly feared and warned the people of the dangerous ideology of Hindutva that the RSS pracharak Modi had espoused and what it spelled for the state. Modi’s anger saw no limit as he was filled with hubris at the way the miyan (Muslim) was trying to oppose his election on February 23, 2002 and also showing pluck to consider himself equal to anyone howsoever high or low as a citizen of the country! Since then Modi took such a course of action as the head of the government after being sworn into power that he proved himself a desi Slobodan Milosevic of the Indian state of Gujarat bent on denying Muslims that they were equal to other fellow Indians. He and many others like him in the hardcore communal minded feel that the Muslims need to be taught a lesson which would show them their place.

There was a grand design hatched out and executed as Hindutva laboratory experiment. It was so systematically carried out that its very cunningness showed how well planned and diabolically and ruthlessly practiced it would be. It would be what many feared and most did not articulate in words and their deafening silence proved to be: genocide of Muslims.

The burning of the compartments of the Sabarmati express train was used to initiate that most violently inhuman course in the history of the state, nay, of India, that it would bring shame to the country but not the man who shrewdly worked behind the scene and controlled and factored everything into the grand design. In the meeting of February 27 late evening it was enough that he told his police and administration that the Hindus would get free hand in the murder and mayhem of Muslims for three days so that the history of the state of balancing Hindus and Muslims evenly in a political correctness of sorts would end forever in favour of the Hindus.
When the pogroms started, Modi was in contact with VHP chief Jaideep Patel and the fire brand minister in charge of children and women affairs, Maya Kodnani. His office phone record shows this. He also had talks with the Police Commissioner PC Pande as 15 phone calls made from his office establish it. As the phone records have been deliberately destroyed despite the gravity of the crimes committed during the pogroms it is high time that a grand jury should look into the role that such people that surrounded Modi as PC Pande, DGP K Chakravarti,, JCP MK Tandon, DCP PB Pondia, chief secretary Subha Rao, health minister Ashok Bhatt (deceased), urban development minister IK Jadejia, minister of state home Govardhan Jhadafiya have played. It is also relevant to go into the CD that IPS officer Rahul Sharma had submitted.
Modi had his administration yoked to one overwhelming task of not only conducting the pogroms of Muslims but also tackling and fixing the far reaching effect. After the arrest of Amit Shah minister of state for Home, it was not only his additional advocate general Tushar Mehta who was operating behind the scene but even an otherwise independent minded Ram Jethmalani offered his services in the juggernaut. It was he who settled the 89 page petition of Amit Shah where he ascribes motives to the two judges. The SC order of transferring the Sohrabuddin case to CBI dated January 12, 2010 had rubbed them on the wrong side. The petition says, “the order (is) a product of a tripartite understanding and arrangement to the effect that the CBI investigation would be ordered by Hon’ble Mr Justice Tarun Chatterjee (the lead judge who issued the January 12 order) as desired by the Central Government, the Central government will provide the Hon’ble Justice a post-retirement assignment, and the CBI will refrain from chargesheeting the Hon’ble Justice in the PF scam case.”

And, Justice Aftab “does not know whether the fact of the aforesaid pending and ongoing CBI investigation (on PF scam) against his brother Judge was known to Hon’ble Mr Justice Aftab Alam. He too should have offered to recuse if he did know.”

It seems that the basic strategy to cover up the genocide was to send probe reports of Special Investigation Team to the state additional advocate general Tushar Mehata. It was under secretary (home) Vijay Badekha who would forward the reports to Mehta. Mehta would find out in real time the vulnerable weak aspects of an accused in the atrocity committed on the Muslims. He would then write to Gurumurthy Swaminathan, the RSS ideologue. Gurumurthy in turn would gather crucial points to find out chink in the armour of the prosecution. So in the most developed state of the country the government exchequer was to pay an additional advocate general to prepare in advance to defend an accused that he should be in reality prosecuting. As the suborning of the judicial system in the state cannot come about at such higher echelon of the government without the nod of the chief executive officer of the state, the chief minister himself, at the wheel of the ship steering the course of the state and his active connivance, is amazing. If he had an iota of a sense of justice and responsibility he should have dismissed Mehta and ordered recovery of the salary drawn during the period the errant additional advocate general had infringed his constitutional duties.

Modi’s silence over this even after Sanjiv Bhatt and Tehelka brought it out in the public shows that he alone should be held responsible for the genocide and the forethought and calculated fall out of the cover up. And those who carried it out using the administrative machinery will be guilty violating the chain of command responsibility. The Nuremberg principles that all these guilty are individually responsible for the crimes of genocide, that, national laws of the land do not prevent criminal responsibility, that, head of the state or government and other government officials involved in genocide are not immune from prosecution, and, that, even being an accomplice to the crimes is enough to constitute an international crime clearly show the need to prosecute the guilty. Vajpayee government had rushed the chair person of the National Human Rights Commission, justice Verma and attorney general Soli Sorabji to Vienna to prevent the UNO human rights commissioner Mary Robinson from visiting India during the Gujarat genocide. The Nuremberg principles and India’s response to the visit make it obligatory that it should not be left to Gujarat government alone to come clean. India has to come clean on it lest we let the door open for anyone to take the matter of the genocide to the UNO under its optional protocol sometimes in the future as the Nero of Gujarat is still fiddling.

The suborning of the system is further borne out in the state setup singling out for dismissal and punishment those officers who chose to remain upright and speak against the genocide or provide evidence about the complicity of the state and its chief minister.
With more and more IPS officers coming out in the open and exposing the misdeeds of Modi it looks awkward what RK Raghvan said in his report which Tehelka reproduced: “As many as 32 allegations were probed into during this preliminary inquiry. These related to several acts of omission and commission by the state government and its functionaries, including the chief minister. A few of these alone were in fact substantiated… the substantiated allegations did not throw up material that would justify further action under the law”.
It is also becoming clear how location-al analysis confirms what many suspect. That PC Pande was raised to the post of DGP for his complicity in the genocide. Pande it was who had ordered the dispersal of the more than a hundred bodies of Muslims to different areas of Ahemdabad to dilute the crimes committed at Naroda Patia. He also visited Ahsan Jafri at 10.30 on February 28 but chose to ignore sending succor. His role in Sohrabuddin fake encounter case and also in the case of Tulsiram Prajapati is also damning. Rajnish Rai has said in a petition to the SC submitted on August 11 2011: "Pande's conduct is clearly and sufficiently establish his culpability in the conspiracy to kill Tulsiram Prajapati in fake encounter, destruction of evidence in Sohrabuddin fake encounter case and in causing willful obstruction in investigation of the fake encounter case by using his office as DGP of the state," Pande prevented police officers under him from visiting Tulsiram in Rajasthan jail so that the matter would be hushed up or remain out of focus of attention.

That Gujarat 2002 was a genocide of Muslims prepared well in advance is clear not only from the readily available print outs of the voter lists and the record of the Muslim commercial establishments to the marauders, etc., but also from the ground reality. On February 27, 2002 six officials of the chief ministers’ office were in Meghaninager. They were preparing for the intended wreaking of revenge on the Muslims the next day, the bandh day of February 28. It was hours before the chief minister declaring the Godhra train incident as a work of Lashkare Toiba or Jaishe Mohammad. Meghaninager was not known as communally sensitive place. No Hindu from the adjoining Bhagwatinager had taken part in the attacks on Gulberg society although it was a Hindu colony. The six officers of CMO turned it into a communal cauldron over night. In three hours they spent there from 2 pm to 5pm they over saw the preparation. For, the next day the pogroms started at the Gulberg society which is located in Meghaninager. Hundreds of bottles containing white powder which increased the intensity of burning were found in Gulberg society during the attack. This indicates how meticulously the preparation was made. Who had arranged for the supply of such incendiary substance in such a short time between the visit of the six and the onset of the violence at 7.30 the next day?
Even when the ghastly dance of rape, murder and arson and playing with the skulls of the victims was so overwhelming the cover up of it was even equally horrifying if suborning of the judicial system gives any indication. “Mehta prepared a reply affidavit to be filed before the apex court on behalf of the Gulbarg accused and forwarded a copy to the principal secretary to the chief minister on April 15, 2010.

“Mehta also forwarded a copy of the petition and the affidavit by the accused to Gurumurthy.” This ideologue of the RSS would then add crucial points for argument against the prosecution in defense of the accused.
Thus even the most horrendous crimes of the Gulberg society are taken as a matter of routine cover up giving one the feeling that the administrative set up was hell bend to show that it was the prerogative of the officials to carry on what they were doing. The life, dignity, rights to live, and the property of the hapless victims ceased to have any meaning in Gujarat of Modi.
Even more bizarre is a note to N Ram, editor of the Hindu. In this Gurmurthy has imputed motive to the SC judges as mentioned earlier in this paper. This is yet another case of cavalierly and even nonchalantly disregarding the all the norms of civilized society on account of their taking Muslims in the country as sub humans ala Aunt Polly in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. She did not consider Negroes reported dead in accident as humans. She counted only the dead white as human casualty!

The Parsi woman who lost her twelve year old son and a grown up daughter in Gulberg society had even recovered herself in her decency. When her powerful rescuer phoned her as to how many were trapped there, she said three and then looked at the others and corrected herself that there were forty! The police and others including the marauders there and the ones covering it all up do not have even this fig leaf to hide their guilt.

A strange sense of proprietorship prevailed where those tainted with genocide of Muslims and its cover up operation came to believe that they would deal with the President of India Pratibha Patil in the same callous manner. Gurumuthy had prepared a memorandum for her Excellency which the additional advocate general had asked him. Shushma Swaraj, LK Advani, Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari were to present it to the President. Even to complain against the bête noir of Modi, Teesta Setalvad, the government officers meant for prosecuting the accused were employed to carry out a vendetta against civil rights activists thanks to the brazen way Modi had conducted the genocide.

There are many dimensions of genocide in the case of Gujarat 2002. One is the fake encounters carried out in the name of deshbhakti or patriotism and the other is the continued harassment of government servants who did not toe the dictate of the state run by Modi. What Modi and his hordes did was to stigmatize a whole community as terrorists and lawbreakers. Modi took the initiative when he dubbed the Ghansi Muslims of Signal Falia in Godhra as lawless. He blamed them to be responsible for the burning of the two compartments of the Sabarmati express on February 27. He went further and called them agents of Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan. This set the agenda for the worked up outraged Hindus. They would naturally extract a heavy price in terms of human life and property in the stipulated three days the chief minister had given them. Then his lieutenants in the police force like DG Vanzara extended it to the fake encounters that took place one after another. When the Muslims were dubbed as treacherous to the country the inference was that it was patriotism to kill them. Modi carelessly taunted them as child producing factories and scoffed at them working by the roadsides repairing vehicles in their greasy attire. He would say a male Muslim marries four wives, the five then produce twenty five and then it goes on. His audience cheered him lustily and during the pogroms they aimed at causing maximum number of casualties. For example at Gulberg society there were more than a dozen children in the arms of their mothers and fathers. The attackers snatched them and killed them. In several other cases even the pregnant women had their womb slashed open and their fetus pierced with spears. This is the stuff of genocide. In the case of the fake encounters Muslims caught in Gujarat and outside like Maharashtra were taken to illegal private bungalows as detention centres and detained there and they were tortured and murdered. They would be brought to road turnings and dumped there. The police would give it to the press that they were agents of ISI or terrorists groups and were on way to kill Modi. Ishrat Jehan, Sohrabuddin, Sadiq Jamal Mehtar and a host of others were wiped out in this way. Modi government would reward the murderous cops with promotion in office and awards.

As a well orchestrated cover up operation is still underway its sheer brazenness will pale into insignificance other genocides of the recent history including what Pol Pot did in Cambodia. Pol Pot was a military man while Modi is elected repeatedly by his fellow Gujratis and hence a constitutionally elected head of government neck deep into the genocide of 2002. Neither the central government of BJP under Vajpayee and Advani had any qualms over it despite the President of India RK Narayanan remonstrating them nor has the mainstream media and intelligentsia done anything beyond token protest or rapping the knuckles. Rahul Sharma was a high ranking officer in charge of Bhavnager in Ahemdabad, a prime posting. He had opened fire at the mob baying for the blood of the Muslims on its way to a madrasa where 300 Muslim kids were housed. Had he not done his duty the kids would have met the fate like their fellow religionists elsewhere. For this he was demoted and sent to the police control room as deputy commissioner of police. He recorded on his official CD telephonic conversation of government officers, Hindu extremists of VHP and Bajrang Dal and the police who were involved in the genocide. He was instantaneously shunted to Surat and now charged with defaming the chief minister. The political configuration of the extremist Hindu groups is of course the political wing called BJP. Its leader Arun Jaitley in his sophistry calls it walking away with secret records. Such is the ever ready pugnacity of the Hindu party BJP that let alone feeling remorse over massacres of Muslims its leaders issue serious warnings to the Home Minister Chidambrum for daring to articulate the constitutional guarantee of safeguarding central government cadres in the police service in Gujarat state who are being harassed, penalized chargesheeted and suspended just because they refused dereliction of duty when the genocide was conducted.

Sanjiv Bhatt was second highest ranking police officer in charge of the security of not only the coastal areas, crucial installations but also the chief minister. He had maintained the official secret act for eight years until he submitted a part of the official record to the Supreme Court hearing one of the most traumatic cases of the genocide, Jakia Jafri’s petition on how her husband and others were gruesomely killed in the Gulberg society on account of the involvement of 62 ministers (Modi included), police officials and political leaders. Since then he has been chargesheeted and suspended from service. It is such a Machiavellian statecraft perfected by Modi that he sticks to his chair like limpet and loses no opportunity to score a point over his rivals or excoriate at them as if he is innocent like the lamb. Guinness book of world record must assure him a place for a government head that crafted the gruesome genocide in real time and conducted it in full steam for three days and can get away with it even in the twenty first century!

“The NIA will not do anything wrong”: Malegaon 2006 near denouement

“The NIA will not do anything wrong”: Malegaon 2006 near denouement


The question of granting bail to the two accused in Malegaon blast of September 29, 2008 Shyam Bhavarlal Sahu and Shivranaryan Kalsangra has again foregrounded the denial of bail to the nine accused in Malegaon blasts of September 8, 2006. Of course, we are fair minded enough not to have this situation amidst us on the ground that the two are Hindus and have been let off and the nine are Muslims and therefore they must languish in jail. In fact the judge did use the word “languish” in granting the bail to the two. Therefore what are the compulsions behind the appearance of this phenomenon?
Shivnarayanan is the real brother of the accused offender and absconder Ramchander @Ramji Kalsangra. According to ATS Ramji had given his brother two bomb timers to keep. This is veritably the material connection. Shyam was a dealer in sim cards and had sold sim cards to Ramji. Over a period of several years timers have been used by Kalsangra and his accomplices to make and explode bombs. If the brother was aware of the work of Ramchander he could not be presumed to not know the kinds of work Ramji was doing. Furthermore the arrest of Shivnarayanan Kalsangra was on account of ‘statements of witnesses’. Even so Justice AM Thipsay ruled: “The NIA which has taken over the probe recently from the State ATS, has been unable to point out specific evidence against the two accused and are claiming that the probe is still on the trial is not yet started in the case and in such circumstances the accused is not required to languish in jail.” It means that the judge refuses to consider them guilty even when the ATS presumes them to be guilty.
Presumption of guilt cannot make an accused guilty. Justice Geeta Mittal while removing the ban on Students Islamic Movement of India observed: “You (the government) say that SIMI is connected to bombs blasts, riots, (and) destructive activities. Place specific material before me, you can not presume their involvement.” Thus discrepancy surfaces in the case of 2006. All the nine accused of 2006 case are alleged to be members of SIMI based on their forced confession under duress. There is no material to link them to bomb blasts.
Even the Home Minister Mr Chidambrum is vague and may be afraid to be candid when he said on August 4, 2011 about the three scenarios of terrorism. The first is that India was the epicenter of terror but now it is shifted to Afghanistan. The second is the home grown terrorists like SIMI now morphed as Indian Mujahideen. And the third is the nascent growth of the rise of the right wing terrorists or fascists groups. Then making a sweeping generalization he goes on to say that "The home-grown terror groups, as popularly believed, do not practice one religion." What ordinarily we would infer is that the right wing and the fascists and the home grown are desi terrorists, be they Muslims or Hindus or Sikhs or Christians. He acknowledges that there is unconvincing belief that all these terrorists belong to one faith or religion. This has “led agencies to wrongly put young men in jail for several years for no fault of theirs.”
This raises the moot question, are all the nine accused in 2006 Malegaon case innocent? They happen to be Muslims.
As against the nine of 2006 there are twelve accused in the case of the 2008 case. These happen to be Hindus. There is material difference. The kind of torture the Muslims have undergone seems to be altogether absent in the case of the Hindus. Some of them have been even pampered. Lt Col Shrikant Purohit has been favoured with a laptop in prison. He can now email whatever applications his wife wants to give to court or else how would she know what to write! This is the world of Alice in Wonderland. There is Major Ramesh Upadhya who would like the court to ban factories around the prison so that they could spend time in jail in a healthy atmosphere. There is Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur who pretends to be sick and wants ayurvedic treatment which the allopath doctors of JJ Hospital are giving her. When she does not want to leave Bhind province as she had spent her childhood there the police fly her back to Mumbai in a plane. The other group of nine has no imagination to even think of these!
As expected this has led to even the most unheard of. Purohit says that he has aided and abetted his fellow members of Abhinav Bharat but he does not think this is terrorism. “Even the (MCOCA) sanctioning order does not say that I (Purohit) have committed any terror attack. I have only aided and abetted.” This kind of nefarious argument would open Pandora’s box of trouble and would take India back into the darkness of the middle ages. For, what does Purohit’s lawyer means when he says that his clients’ crimes are “a continued unlawful activity but not an organised crime.” Was attacking Malegaon with bombs at two times in 2006 and 2008 not an organized crime? Was stealing RDX from army stock not a crime? Giving it out for blowing Samjhauta express not an organized crime? Selling government seized guns not an organized crime? Getting fake military ID not an organized crime? Purohit and others are neck deep into all these. All these were well organized and connected activities.
Thus the National Investigation Agency has no other option except to call a spade a spade. It has taken the first clear and bold step not to oppose bail application of the nine accused in 2006 Malegaon blasts case. They would breathe the air of freedom soon. It will be in the fitness of things that their fellow countrymen cutting across all religious groups should not just heave a sigh of relief but rejoice that justice will ultimately prevail.
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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/mumbai-blasts-could-be-handiwork-of-a-home-grown-terror-module-p-chidambaram/articleshow/9487225.cms
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/MCOCA-in-Malegaon-case-looks--shaky---HC/827461/
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_malegaon-accused-finally-make-bail_1573373
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110807/jsp/nation/story_14348004.jsp

Mumbai 13/7: can we take CBI’s words to be true?

Caution is the need of the hour as the gruesome tragedy has again raised its ugly specter in the murder and mayhem in Mumbai. Again the façade is there: the 24th birthday of Ajmal Kasab, and the vicinity of the fifth anniversary of 7/11 or July 11, 2006 attacks on the local trains, the scheduled meeting of the Indian and Pakistan foreign officials on July 27. And what has not been added in the list is that Hindu festivals are coming up soon and therefore likelihood of attack. This is the rut through which the investigation agencies under the parentage of Intelligence Bureau have moved so far. But a cautioned nation and enlightened citizenry should have a check up on it hereafter.
A fortnight before the “attack” on Rashtra Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS headquarters at Nagpur the director of Intelligence Bureau EML Narsimhan had gone to meet RSS chief SK Sudarshan in Dombivili, Mumbai, to warn him of an imminent attack of Lashkare Toyba on RSS headquarters. And the “attack” came. The police had fired 63 rounds of bullets on the attackers and the remaining 37 bullets were fired by the so called terrorists. However a fact finding commission under Justice Kolse Patil visited the site and found that the terrorists could not have fired any bullet as there was no trace of it on the walls, roads or the other material surrounding. Of course IB patted on its back for having prevented a Hindu Muslim riot and the central government heaved a sigh of relief. After all its National Security Advisor MK Narayanan had dispatched Narsimhan on the mission. This he had done on the basis of confession of Firoz Ghanswala of Bharuch and Mohammed Chippa of Ahemdabad who were arrested by the Delhi police on terrorist charges on May 9. The government had enhanced the personal security of the RSS boss as well as the headquarters. Will a terrorist group still go ahead with this kind of preparedness of the government? Given this kind of scenario it would rather look like an orchestrated attack mounted by the intelligence/security agency itself.
Is there any need to heave a sigh of relief after 13/7? The nation has heaved such sighs of relief after Malegaon 2006 as well as attacks on Akshardham, and other temples and mosques so often that there is fear of asphyxiation. Quite on heels of it, and to bank on the public paranoia, comes the report “Terror threat to Bhakra Nangal dam, reveals IB report” (Times of India, July 16, 2011). It has come as ponderous on the chest of the people as the family Bible placed on the dying in the hope that he would be dispatched direct to heaven because of the Holy Scriptures weighing on him.
Even before the rains wash away the blood in Zaveri bazaar, Opera House and Dadar Kabuterkhana the IB was ready with its facile result that Indian Mujahideen and the ISI were behind the attacks. The Sakaal Marathi newspaper headlined “On Kasab’s birth day attack on Mumbai” (Kasabcheya vadhdivishi Mumbaiwar hamla). Two operatives of terror of that outfit were recently arrested and therefore the attack. So what is logical inference, Kasab’s birth day or the arrest of the LeT operatives? Another explanation is that 13 and 27 July are “chosen days” of the operatives. (Times of India July 14)
In tandem is the reaction. LK Advani visited the site (remember he never visited Malegaon or any mosque targeted by Hindutva groups) and called for destruction of the terrorist network in Pakistan. After the December 2001 attack on Parliament he had visited the site and remarked that the terrorists looked like Pakistanis. How could he know the Hindutva terrorists like Sunil Joshi who wore saffron dress like his female counterpart, Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur and who turned out to be the terrorists? Of course some people joked that he was born in Pakistan and should know how the Pakistanis looked. Bal Thackeray: now instead of relying on the government for security, the people should defend themselves, when they see the extremists kill them with whatever weapon they can lay hand on. (aata jantene sarkarwar visambun na rahtaa swata che rakshan karawe, ateereki disle ki, hatat meedel tya shashastra ne teyana khatam krawe. ) This well repeated knee jerk reaction of Thackeray really calls for a knee slapper even when he is inciting mob violence and is directly calling for lynching.
We should thank IB for both, the way ready made-up explanation is given and the reaction based on it.
Resurrecting the dead is one way of handling an explosive situation so the IB and its support groups and individuals will bring back the genii of Ilyas Kashmiri. He is said to be alive and kicking in the tribal areas in the north west of Pakistan. Whether the people there like India and have no enmity is another matter. The IB had followed the same after Mecca mosque attack by recreating Shahid Bilal. He was supposed to have been killed in Karachi. There is another figure called Danish Riyaz . But he is already in a jail in Ahemdabad. As they are fond of many aliases it is left to the discretion of the agencies to supply them to suit the occasion. One “Bhatkal’s” mother even repeatedly objected that her son is not “Bhatkal” but the name is used habitually as the errors that appear in the list of the most wanted fugitive criminals who have sought sanctuary elsewhere or are languishing in the prisons of India, nay riding their motorbikes in Mumbai streets under the nose of the police. The two Bhatkals who are regularly brought back to life are Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal. They have fled to Pakistan. Yet in all recent bomb attacks like Pune German bakery attack and now 13/7 the hunt for them is again started. They are far from Mumbai or Pune so why do the agencies resurrect them? In doing so, they seem to be burying much deeper into oblivion the most distinguished Hindutva terrorists and RSS pracharaks, Ramji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange. There is no red cornered notice given out to Interpol or any agencies of any state or country.
They are at large and yet the nine accused in Malegaon 2006 case are left to the dark dungeon to begin their fifth year in prison. There are three fugitives of the case; one of them was Arsalan who according to the nine was with them in prison. And yet he is not in jail. The CBI came to Malegaon recently before the NIA took over and made a heroic effort to trace the three. But did they ask the local police why and how Arsalan was in jail and got out and disappeared. Munawar was seen in a police van by the local corportator Ismail Mulla who gave an affidavit on it. What have the police done to him that CBI was earnestly asking him to surrender?
It would mean that like Azamgarh, Bhatkal also is turning into a familiar hunting ground for the IB and going after the fugitives is a strategy for dilly dallying.
On this fifth anniversary of Shab-e-barat in Malegaon as I was returning home from market I passed the two blasts sites and saw huge barricades raised with lofty watch towers and wondered at inanity of all this, calling for the halter when the horse has bolted! There was no such elaborate arrangement of security and check posts on that fateful day of September 8, 2006 when I had passed the same route. The police were altogether absent from the site, the gate of the cemetery had the third bomb hung by it. Many were cut down there and others died in the stampede. Zahoor of the Sahara channel was ready with his Sony camera to make a feature programme of the holy day. The clipping clearly shows no police man around and yet the NIA claims that 16 police men were on duty there and were given shelter in a room fearing mob violence. On September 1st 2006 itself the Nasik control room received actionable intelligence that terrorist attack would take place within a short period. The ASP of Malegaon Mr. Kumbhare had informed the SP (Rural) Mr. Rajwardhan that there was imminent threat. The ASP had gone to the trustees of Hamidiya mosque at the grave yard a day before the bomb blasts and apprised them of the danger. He mentioned that police would be deployed within and outside the graveyard and beggars would not be allowed within the vicinity of the mosque and the graveyard. Even then there were no police men in sight when the blasts occurred and many beggars were injured and killed within the premises of the mosque. Why were there no police men at the mosque?

In the present context of Zaveri bazaar and Opera House there were scores of CCTV lenses focused on the scenes and must thrown light on the events. But Mumbai has plenty of examples in the previous terrorist attacks of how the cameras were tampered with at CST and the Saki octroi junction on the periphery of the commercial capital of India. It is also incumbent on the people that they remain alert that such records are in safe hands so that real culprits are caught and punished.

It was in this context that Digvijay Singh observed that no group should be excluded from scrutiny, including the Hindutva terrorists. The people of Malegaon had met the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had assured them that investigation will not leave out any suspected organization from inquiry. And, yet, on the fifth day of the blasts the police called 20 Hindus from Tilak road and nearby lanes teeming with yarn merchants and gray cloth merchants. Then they changed the course of investigation. Writing on it at that time I called it changing horses in the mid stream. We still rue the day it happened and rue everyday day that innocent people are languishing in prison because of the false confession extracted from them by use of brutal force and third degree torture. How wonderful it would be if the police and investigators solve the case and focus on the present disaster which has the potential of becoming the first incident of a suicide bomber enmeshed in wire on his death at one of the sites. Mere denial of it does not cut any ice.
The intervention into the inquiry is more troublesome than anything else. MK Narayanan had intervened in the case of the Samjhauta express. IB in the case of Malegaon. DGP of Maharashtra Dr Pasricsa had said that Bajrang Dal was involved in the September 8 attack. On the next day Punya Nagri carried an editorial and rejected this observation of the senior most cop. Interestingly this mainstream Marathi paper also carried a report on the front page that Jalgaon had a university of terror there. This was ascribed to IB. As I have argued in my online book “Aggressive Hindutva terror and Malegaon” that “critical thinking” is absolutely necessary in trying to find out the truth. It would mean that critical analysis can completely change your views on terror. There is every chance that it could also alter your attitude as to who is a terrorist. It could turn out that you discover ‘the terrorist at your dinner table’. Another way of discovering ‘the heart of darkness’ within you.
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Intelligence-agencies-yet-to-crack-mystery/articleshow/9218725.cms
sakaal July 14, 2011. July 17, 2011.
http://www.indianexpress/news/2-weeks-ago-ib-chief-told/5617/

Malegaon blasts of 2006 and, now, the pathology of terror

There is a moving scene of courtly love even in the macabre world of terror. There is intrigue within an intrigue, sub plot within a plot. Sunil Joshi and Pragyasingh Thakur had their stars crossed ala Romeo Juliet. What made the duchess have a dimple on her cheek as the painter painted her? The duke in Robert Browning gave an order and all her smiles disappeared forever. Similarly what exactly did Joshi say that violated the modesty of Pragyasingh Thakur? Was it so bawdy that it should not be said in the presence of women? The virile figure of Joshi aroused different passions in different people as did the other protagonist.
There are layers of meaning that surround episodes in high drama. In this euphemism can play crucial role as does innuendoes in the matters of love relationship. There is also sexual jealousy which demands its share in toll of the lovers.
It could not have been just a naughty remark like that of the commissioner of police in Delhi who said some years ago that handsome ladies in the city wear dashing and dazzling and provocative dress. That causes teasing, molestation and rape. The murder of Joshi requires more erudition than the cops and investigators have time to afford.
Euphemism and innuendoes abound in Malegaon 2006 case as well. An important witness and sometimes approver in 2006 case Abrar Ahmed narrates how he fell on the bathroom floor and had his spine injured and was hospitalized on January 1, 2007. Into the JJ Hospital arrived groups of his relatives from his in-laws sides and also from his own blood relations and of course the cops. Then additional superintendant of police of Malegaon Mr Rajwardhan also visited him. At one time in the hospital he allegedly gave one lakh rupees to Abrar’s brother in law Farooq Vardha and five and a half to his father in law Iqbal Chourdhary. He also got him a flat in Bhiwandi and another in Mumbai. This entire largess was given for the reason best known to the cop only. He had also given a gun to the brother in law of Abrar. What was the purpose?
However, Abrar’s wife Jannatunnia contends that her brother had a licence for gun as far back as 2000. Even when the case has not come up for trial well almost into the sixth year of the detention of the nine accused this delay has begun to show fissures. There is mudslinging as to who is barren or impotent. She is still young and good looking and desires another chance in life.
The circumstances of the case constitute one of the most intriguing episodes of Hindutva terror. Soon after the bomb explosions on September 8, 2006 on Shab-e-barat Abrar visited the Galaxy hospital. He overheard that some well known Hindus had exploded the bombs. He went to the house of his in laws and told them about it. They were startled, according to him, and rang up his brother in law Farooq Vardha (another police informer) in Bhiwandi. So the police came in action and instead of going after the Hindus like Dr Bipin Parekh, Someshwar Shanker, Dr Rajender Amin and others they detained Abrar. First Rajardhan gave him work of repairing his inverter at his residence in Nasik. In the meanwhile he was given a phone to contact Rajwardhan. But the additional superintendant of police gave a mobile phone to his wife as well. What had Rajwardhan to do with her and what he talked to her on her contact number 9825826597? In a French novel it would make one wonder at the role of the roué.
The gun that the cop gave to Vardha is more intriguing. Was Abrar so material witness that he needed to be guarded with a gun? Or, liquidate when the time came. Rajwardhan had met Abrar on Sptember 13, on the fifth day of the blasts. Subsequently he sent Abrar and wife to Indore and other places in Madhya Pradesh. They were introduced to Lt Col Shrikant Purohit, Sadhvi Pragyasingh and others. At the Jagtap mala, like the château in a romance, many more intrigues awaited Abrar and wife. They had dinner with Purohit. It is also a fact that later Abrar and wife were kept separate in places alien to the couple and particularly to the woman. How could she live alone?
But then at one meeting Rajwardhan addressed Abrar in the presence of his wife (and perhaps some others) ala ‘kahin per nigahen kahin per nishana’; looking at someone but aiming at another. “Naya juta jab phat jata hai ya khrab ho jata hai to use fenk diya jata hai.” (When a shoe is torn or becomes tattered we throw it away.) Abrar could not make sense of it directly and asked him to explain. Rajwardhan told him that he was quite mature and a hint is enough for a wise man. However, Abrar knew that the cop was a scheming person and wanted to drive a wedge between him and his wife.
That has now turned into a gulf between the spouses. She has sought divorce in the sharia court. There is a new alignment in the families. His father’s family says that she is trying to dodge the National Investigation Agency (NIA) sleuths from getting to the secret surrounding her husband’s role in the blasts. Her father’s family on the contrary believes that her husband’s role in the blasts has besmirched the reputation of her family in the eyes of the people. She feels that the slur of being wife of a police informer is telling on her nerves and ill treatment of her in-laws is excruciating.
In the time of breaking of the family of the accused it is important to note that there is an Iago or villain who has contributed to the worsening of the situation. Now the question arises what exactly was the equation of the villain and the family.
This is not a question of slander. The allegation of shunning investigation by NIA is fraught with deception that has far reaching consequences. It needs close scrutiny in the court of law. There are other cases of the same kind where the cop’s relation with families involved in serious crimes raises serious doubts. And the investigation has either run in cold track or the matter has been hushed up.
Shamshuddin Mushrif quotes a report of the Milligazette of May 1-15 2008 in his book Who Killed karkare? “17 April 2008: The Malegaon police raided a pathology laboratory situated in the basement of a private hospital and recovered five live RDX explosives, three used RDX explosives, one pistol, a laptop, a scanner, two mobile phones, four fake currency notes of Rs one thousand each and Rs 5000 in cash and arrested three persons, viz., Nitish Ahere Sahebrao Dhurve and Jitendra Khema belonging to some unknown organization.”
A Marathi news paper Lokmat carried front page coverage for three days on the same event. The paper does not mention any liaison. But what was not thought of is becoming a probability of equation or relationship. Therefore investigation must also focus on the personal relationship of the important people who figure in the case. Are investigators trained to handle this? Similarly a court cannot dismiss the affidavit of Abrar even when there can be lies in it. But it contains circumstantial evidence. Abrar and Jannatunnisa did stay in hotel Pritam of Dadar in Mumbai. It is also known that LIC agent BK Shaikh met them at the Gateway of India. What was the couple doing there? They were known to be living in necessitous circumstances and therefore how could they afford the hotel bill? Moreover, what Rajwardhan is reported to have told about the frayed relationship of the spouses has come home to roost.
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http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-07-10/mumbai/29757634_1_malegaon-blast-khula-divorce

The seditious act of terrorism: Samjhauta express

The most notable feature of the charge sheet in the Samjhauta case is that it strikes a chord in the heart of the people of the country irrespective of their identity. That Indians of all hue and colour belong to one nation and one nation alone. That Pakistan is a different country though not named here. It also reveals the undeniable truth that the bombers of the train were motivated to attack the predominantly Muslim passengers but Hindus were also killed. Furthermore the planned attacks on Mecca mosque, Ajmer and Malegaon were aimed at Muslims of India for what the jihadist terrorists were supposed to be doing in the case of Akshardham, Raghunath and Sankat Mochan temples.
This is borne out by each of the capital lettered word the charge sheet mentions: “criminal conspiracy with an intent to threaten Unity, Integrity, Security and Sovereignty of India and to strike terror in the people of India and a foreign country.”
But what is its implication is that the conspirators of the RSS do not share the same view of the spirit of nationality as revealed in the charge sheet. Had this been the case they would not have targeted fellow countrymen in acts of terrorism just because they follow a different religion. The Muslims of India do not share the jihadist fervor of the kind that is so visible in “a foreign country” as the charge sheet calls Pakistan. Therefore “seditious act of terrorism” squarely fits on the RSS and its conglomerate for it is they who have excluded the minorities like Muslims from the kind of cultural nationalism they advocate to project them as the ‘other’. These are far reaching meanings of the citizenry of this country at odd with the ground reality of the right wing groups.
The charge sheet mentions Akshardham temple, Raghunath mandir, and Sankat Mochan temple where jihadist terrorists struck. The overwhelming number of Muslims had nothing to do with such attacks. They had no affinity with anyone who was involved in such attacks. What went amiss was that Muslims were outright blamed and a witch hunt was mounted against them. This made it look like all the Muslims were just jihadists and were prone to terrorism. The truth turned out to be quite opposite of it. The RSS and others of the same inclination have never reconciled to the fact that peaceful coexistence requires equal respects and trust for all. At a critical juncture of history two persons of eminence have written what is the crux of the matter. President KR Narayanan remarked on July 24, 2002 that “the Hindus who formed the majority (need) to speak out in the traditional spirit of the Hindu religion.” Then he underscored that India must deal with its Muslim minority “in a civilized manner,” ensuring them “security and the right of citizens in a democratic state.” This was not the case in the arrests of innocents and their languishing in jails years on end on false charges, in the pogroms that took place in Gujarat. Narayanan quotes Prime Minister Nehru who addressed the chief ministers when he said that the Muslim community was “so large in numbers that they cannot, even if they want to, go anywhere else. They have got to live in India. That is a basic fact about which there can be no argument. Whatever the provocation from Pakistan, and whatever the indignities and horrors inflicted on non-Muslims there, we have got to deal with the minority in a civilized manner.”
What happened in India’s war on terror in the last decade is far from what Nehru wanted in 1947. That is what is needed more now than the case was in 1947 excepting the border crossing and the scale of murder and mayhem in the name of partition.
Immediately in the aftermath of the attacks on Samjhauta express the Muslims were blamed and several members of the community were arrested. The investigation by the Haryana police was obstructed by the lack of cooperation on the part of the Madhya Pradesh government and the strange logic of India’s national security advisor.
As far as prayaschit, deep remorse, is concerned, Aseemanand felt it once but took a somersault. Indresh Kumar who gave 50, 000 for the attack does not feel it at all. If the RSS had a modicum of it, it would have surrendered Indresh Kumar to the police!
It is still not too late.

The “scheduled offences” of Hindutva terror

In a welcome move the home ministry has described the murder of Sunil Joshi as a scheduled offence under section (8) of NIA Act. Now the National Investigation Agency is busy investigating nine cases in which Malegaon prominently figures as one. According to the relevant section of the Act: "While investigating any scheduled offence, the agency may also investigate any other offence -- which the accused is alleged to have committed -- if the offence is connected with the scheduled offence."
In the first place scheduled offenses would mean a detailed and short timed plan of committing acts of terrorism. The so called nine terrorist attacks had the background of the 2000 census which had created a paranoia that the population of the Muslims had shown a remarkable increase. This would naturally play in the hands of the Hindutva groups who would whip up the concern of the majority by preying on their anxiety and use it against the Muslims. One common denominator of all this would be causing maximum casualties of the minority. This is very much in evidence in the planning of March 2006 and June 2006. In both of these Aseemanand, Sunil Joshi and Sandeep Dange, Lokesh Sharma, etc. would play a dynamic role.
Another feature of the backdrop was the world view of Muslims as terrorists in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack on America. This weltanschauung also facilitated Hindutva in its entrenched hatred of the Muslims within India. This was a heady mix that cross-fertilized Hindutva terror. Their penchant for planning strategies proved them to be hefty as ever.
Next important feature is the adoption of a strategy by the intelligence agencies to lure Muslim youths to cross the border for training in terrorism and on return collect intelligence from them and then frame them in false cases. This again played in the hands of the Hindutva groups. Muslim youths were invariably blamed for training abroad and dubbed as LeT members. This proved to be totally irrelevant to the bomb blasts that actually took place in Malegaon and other places like Ajmer, Samjhauta train, etc.
A part of the strategy would be to wipe out the trail that would actually lead to those in top rung of the RSS who must remain anonymous when an act of terror is executed. Sunil Joshi was believed to be boastful and he had also insulted Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur. This made him a liability. Therefore an adjunct plan was to take care of possible disclosure of their secret. The same seemed to have been in the case of Azhar Pervez who had seen either the bomb planter at Mushawrat chowk in Malegaon on September 8, 2006 and/or was present in the Mamco bank near Perry chowk. Around the time of the blasts of 2006 in Malegaon there was uproar in the same bank where those who had played their role in the blasts boasted of getting award and some quarreled and openly groused against the amount paid. Was Pervez silenced as he was a witness to these?
His so called suicide does not convince anyone. He had alerted the local Muslim NGOs of these events. Before they could give a protective cover he was found dead in a very suspicious situation. It is unheard of that anyone would commit suicide by cutting both his wrists as well as the artery on his ankles. It would rather look as if those who wanted to silence him chose the deserted part of his power loom shed and killed him in such a way that they made it sure that he would never speak of it again. He was reported to have received threatening calls as well. His relatives were very nervous and edgy as they belonged to the Ahle Hadish groups which was wrongfully blamed for these explosions and the group was under the clouds of suspicion. A reporter to an Urdu paper wanted to report this death had to face a tricky situation. The bereaved family rushed to him and supplicated that he does not publish the story. That would bring more trouble to them as the police had threatened them with dire consequences. From the vantage point of today when Anna Hazare is asking for greater security to news reporters in the aftermath of the murder of Jvotirmoy Dey it would look strange how India could slide down so low in human rights violation and media covering of events. But it is true that the papers by and large carried the police version that it was suicide. The murder of Joshi was also thought to be the work of SIMI or the Muslims and if not these at the most the result of the murder of Congress leader Pyare Singh Ninama. Ultimately the truth came out that Joshi could reveal the high ranking leaders of the RSS and so he was bumped off. Pragyasingh Thakur went to his house before the news could reach to them and secured all the incriminating evidence of RSS involvement in it. The family did not suspect anything foul according to the niece of Joshi. They did not know that the friend in the guise of the sadhvi had turned foe of their dear one. Thus the need to make thorough investigation is very necessary.
The so called suicide of Shanker Shelke of Ahmednager is also very much related to acts of terrorism. Four days before the blasts in Malegaon, i.e. September 4, 2006, the police seized 195 kilos of RDX, TNT mixed together from his scrap yard. First he absconded from the police. Then the police caught him and on the following day of Malegaon blasts, i.e. September 9 he committed suicide in police custody. The first finger of suspicion was pointed out at it by no other than the police commissioner Mr Shingre. He claimed that the seizure of the RDX in Ahmednager was related to Malegaon blast.
It is really astounding that till today the investigation agencies have turned a deaf ear to the claim of the police commissioner!
Therefore in the light of the section (8) of NIA Act it would be legitimate to inquire into the so called suicides of Azhar Pervez and Shanker Shelke as “scheduled offenses”.

The duo had not fallen out with anyone nor did they have “boastful nature” that Joshi had. Joshi was silenced because Indresh Kumar feared that this nature would one day give him out. Therefore the admonition of Aseemanand to Joshi to care for his life as Indresh Kumar would kill him.

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/MP-police-to-hand-over-Sunil-Joshi-murder-case-details-to-NIA/articleshow/8895630.cms