Probe
or Persecution?
By Dionne Bunsha
Frontline
18 May, 2003
They did not expect a showdown
at a memorial prayer meeting. So, when Vithalbhai Pandya said that his
son Haren's assassination on March 26 was "a political murder",
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders were red in the face. Deputy Prime Minister
L.K. Advani had to admit that an injustice had been done to the slain
leader. Haren Pandya was former Home Minister of Gujarat and Chief Minister
Narendra Modi's most fierce opponent in the State BJP.
The next day, Advani flew
back to Delhi and announced that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim were involved in the killing.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had barely started work on
the case.
Since then, Ahmedabad's Muslim
areas have faced the brunt of the `investigation'. In the middle of
the night, homes are raided in search of `ISI agents'. Soon after Advani's
prophecy, on April 3, the Crime Branch of the State Police arrested
five suspected ISI-trained terrorists, who were allegedly involved in
the plot to kill Haren Pandya. Soon after, the CBI arrested five more
in Andhra Pradesh. Of them, Asgar Ali is allegedly the one who pulled
the trigger. In all, the CBI has arrested eight persons from Andhra
Pradesh.
While the CBI has not yet
charged the accused under the harsh Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA),
the Crime Branch of the Gujarat Police has remanded the 10 alleged ISI
agents arrested by it under POTA and is waiting to book those in CBI
custody as well. The Ahmedabad Police say that the mastermind, Mufti
Ahmedmiyan Sufiyan Patangiya, is still at large. He was apparently coordinating
with Rasool Parti, now in Karachi, who was once part of the Latif gang
in Ahmedabad.
"The CBI is handling
only Haren Pandya's killing. Our case pertains to a larger conspiracy
to destabilise the country," said a Crime Branch official. "Three
of the accused were trained in Karachi. They went there in December
via Calcutta and Dhaka and returned on March 8. They were sent by Sufiyan.
They are all part of a bigger terrorist network involved in many other
crimes," the official said. However, all the 10 accused arrested
by the Crime Branch are connected with the Haren Pandya case. The Crime
Branch seems to be working parallel to the CBI, but only in a more repressive
manner.
The raids and arrests have
instilled fear in Ahmedabad's already petrified Muslim community. "They
bang on the doors in the middle of the night, barge into homes, rummage
through the residents' belongings and arrest people without giving their
families any information," says Nazneen Bastawala, a corporator
from Kalupur, Ahmedabad. She organised a protest by women whose sons
and husbands have disappeared. Bastawala claims that the police have
detained more than 25 men illegally. There is no record of their arrest.
"For days, we didn't know where they were. A week later, the police
released them. Luckily, the police let off many without filing false
cases against them," said one of the women.
When the police came looking
for Arif's (name changed) younger brother Salim (name changed), he was
not at home. So, instead they arrested Arif, his father and another
brother. "They wouldn't let us go until we told them where Salim
was. But I really didn't know where he had gone. The interrogations
were like mental torture. They let my brother go home after two days.
My aged father, who has a heart problem, fell unconscious twice. But
they weren't bothered," says Arif. Arif and his father were released
after a week. But Arif was re-arrested because he was not able to trace
Salim. "They even sent me to Mumbai to look for Salim. But they
arrested him in Ahmedabad on the day I left for Mumbai," says Arif.
Several people narrated similar stories about brothers or fathers being
arrested illegally.
The raids continued until
the end of the month. Women went rushing to lawyers asking them to help
trace their husbands. Those who traced their sons and husbands in custody
are afraid that they could be killed in fake encounters, a well-known
technique of the Gujarat Police. The most recent "encounter death"
was that of Samir Khan Pathan, accused of plotting to assassinate Narendra
Modi. He was apparently taken to the site of a crime he had committed
previously, and was killed while he allegedly tried to escape. On April
30, Faqruddin Yusuf Sikligar, an accused in the Godhra case, died in
custody. The police say he was suffering from low blood pressure.
"Why are all Muslims
branded terrorists? Why is POTA applied only to the Godhra accused and
now to these youth? Why not against those who killed so many during
the communal massacres in Naroda Patiya and Gulbarg society? Why are
they out on bail? Why is there selective justice?" asked one of
the women who protested against the arbitrary arrests. A telling comparison,
indeed. After the charge-sheets of the riot cases were filed, several
witnesses went to court stating that their testimonies were ignored
or recorded wrongly. They asked for their statements to be recorded
properly by the police. Moreover, riot victims from Naroda Gaam, who
testified to the role of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Dr. Jaideep
Patel and other BJP leaders, were jailed six months later in a separate
murder case.
Even Haren Pandya's family
is wary of the arrests. "I am of the firm opinion that this was
an intentional political murder. This talk of a terrorist plan is absolutely
absurd," said Vithalbhai Pandya. "The day after I said at
the condolence meeting that it was a political murder, Advani announced
that the ISI and Dawood Ibrahim were involved. The CBI inquiry had just
begun. We have faith in the CBI. But when a responsible person makes
an immature statement, it can derail the inquiry," he said. On
the arrests, he said, "The murderer may have killed because of
money. But the real political culprit must be arrested. No real inquiry
can be made until the person in power steps down. They are making arrests
just to show people that action is being taken. Everyone understands
what is happening. But no one can speak."
Ironically, the dreaded `terrorists'
seem to keep coming to Narendra Modi's rescue. His campaign promise
to wipe out terrorism from Gujarat helped him win the elections. Now,
the arrests of `ISI terrorists' seem to be easing him out of an embarrassing
situation.