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Nine youth accused in Malegaon blast
case of 2006 have been granted bail by the MCOCA court. (Nov 6
2011). These Muslim youth were arrested after the bomb exploded on
the Shab-e-Barat, killing several people. Immediately after that
the Anti Terrorist Sqaud, arrested nine Muslim youth, there was
really no evidence worth its name against them. Still police which
is, motivated more by biases than by professionalism, arrested
these Muslims youth.
The investigation agencies have firmly
believed all through that all terrorists are Muslims. Human rights
workers tried to reason with the top police authorities that how
can Muslim youth conspire to kill their own kin. In other quarters
the way the virus of Islamophobia and anti Muslim sentiments has
gripped a large section in society including the police
authorities, have strong biases against Muslims. The investigation
for authorities so far had become an easy job, after every blast,
catch hold of few Muslim youth put them behind bars and then try
to generate the evidence, if possible.
Similar things happened in Mecca Masjid blast when the authorities
arrested nearly 25 Muslim youth after the blast in the mosque.
That time even the National Commission for Minorities minced no
words and concluded that the case against Muslim youths, who were
detained in the immediate aftermath of the 2007 Mecca Masjid
blasts, has been fabricated.
The Godhra train burning investigation is also mired in much
deeper misconception, where nothing could be proved against the
alleged Chief conspirator, Maulana Haji Umarji. Despite that,
other Muslim youth were given the sentence. All these
investigations show a clear pattern that the biases of the
investigation authorities overtake their professional training.
This was also one of the lazy way of going about things as
arresting Muslims after such an episode is passé’ in public
opinion and in the media in particular. Barring a small section of
media others hardly played their role of raising doubts about the
methods of investigating authorities.
In the blasts in Nanded (April 2006) two Bajrang dal activists
died while making the bombs. They were making the bombs in the
house of one Mr. Rajkondawar, a RSS worker. It had all the clear
evidence of the Hindutva terror gang undertaking such terrorist
operations. But Mahrashtra ATS stubbornly ignored the basic point
and protected the real guilty of the crime. It took the like of
Hemant Karkare to impeccably unearth the evidence linking the
Malegaon blast of 2008 with Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami
Dayanand Pandey and other RSS associates, to meticulously
demonstrate that the real cause of terror attacks in these places
from Nanded, Modassa, Parbhani, Jalna, Aurangabad, Ajmer and
Samjhauta blast lies somewhere else. It is unfortunate that the
police officer of such an integrity was killed in the Mumbai
terror attack on 26/11 2008.
What was happening so far was that since police was merrily
botching up the investigation, the real culprits were becoming
bolder and they went on committing one after the other acts of
terror. There is a long list of RSS affiliates, against whom there
is a strong ground to allege them. Of course, RSS true to its
character was quick to say that those involved in acts of terror,
had already ‘left’ the RSS. The matters really could not be hidden
after the confession of Swami Aseemanand, which was reported first
by the gutsy magazine Tehelka. Swami Aseemanand, an RSS worker,
who was working for VHP in Dangs, organizing Shabri Kumbh in the
presence of top RSS top brass, confessed in presence of a
magistrate. This confession as per the law can be treated as an
evidence in the court. He spilled the beans and confessed his role
in Mecca masjid and other blasts and also named his colleagues in
the crime. This forced the agencies to do the course correction in
some ways. Aseemanand has named senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar,
the murdered RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur
and senior RSS pracharaks Sandeep Dange and Ramji Kalsangra, among
others, as being key conspirators in the terror blast.
The result of this fortunately is that in Malegaon blast accused
after 5 years of their suffering and loss of youthful years in
jails, have been granted the bails. This raises multiple questions
as far as our society and nation are concerned. First is, do we
deserve such a biased investigation agencies who, episode after
episode, keep repeating the same method despite the lack of proper
evidence. The heavy reliance of agencies on the role of SIMI, a
banned organization and some vague groups with Muslim names has
been the favorite line of investigation of the authorities. How
can this trend be reversed? The biases in the minds of authorities
are also a reflection of ‘social common sense’ prevalent in the
society. This ‘social common sense’ has been manufactured by
communal forces and media has disseminated it further. Despite the
Harmony Programs by Government, despite the Home ministry’s lip
service to prop up National Foundation for communal harmony, not
many awareness programs have been consistently followed or taken
up seriously.
The state has enough resources to ensure that police academies,
the officers training institutes and college-universities are made
the conduit to disseminate the values of plural traditions, the
synthesis of religions in the form of Bhakti and Sufi traditions,
the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi on communal harmony. A lot is
possible to give a prop to the values of harmony which underlie
the India’s freedom movement and are inherent in Indian
Constitution. There are many a NGOs and individuals who are trying
to do this work, but definitely their reach is very limited. This
promotion of culture of amity and celebration of diversity by the
state is a must at this juncture.
The second point of serious concern is what does state and society
do when the lives of innocents are ruined by the callous attitude
of investigation authorities. There have demands that these youth
should be adequately compensated and their amount of compensation
should be recovered from the salaries of the police officers who
are blinded by their prejudices and push aside professionalism to
give a free play to their biases in arresting these youth. A
suitable rehabilitation program, scholarship, assistance to
rebuild the life has to be the responsibility of the state in
these matters. State must come forward to undo the severe harm it
has inflicted on these innocent youth.
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