FALSE CASE By S. Dorairaj - FRONTLINE Cover Story

ON the evening of July 21, 2006, Haroon Basha, 26, and his family and friends were celebrating the first birthday of his son Mohammed Shameel at his single-bedroom house at Nanjundapuram Itteri on the outskirts of Coimbatore. A few hours later, the young screen printer was taken by surprise when the police raided his house and implicated him in a case involving the seizure of explosives, which added to the communal tension the city was experiencing.

The police arrested four others, including his elder brother Malik Basha, a mentally ill person, in the case under Section 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 5 of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908. Before they got bail, each of them had spent a minimum of 68 days in jail.

The timing of the so-called seizure of explosives and arrest of “suspected fundamentalists”, coming as they did a few days before the court verdict in the 1997-98 Coimbatore serial blasts case, led to questions being asked about the “rise of fundamentalism” in the city.

The police claim about a “pre-dawn swoop, arrests and seizure of incriminating evidence such as maps and sketches and components meant for assembling improvised explosive devices” from the accused set off rumours that the gang had hatched a plot to “plant bombs at the Coimbatore Government Medical College Hospital and trigger serial blasts in key towns [in the State], besides targeting leaders of Hindu outfits”.

Even as the police took credit for the “meticulously planned successful operation”, a section of the media put out sensational stories until the report of the special investigation team (SIT), submitted to a local court on October 31, 2007, dubbed the case false.

The State government handed over the investigation to the Crime Branch- Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) on August 1, 2006, following apprehensions expressed by Muslim organisations and human rights groups about the genuineness of the case. The CB-CID constituted the SIT, headed by Additional Superintendent of Police (CB-CID), Chennai, R. Balan.

In the report the SIT chief said in conclusion: “To put in a nutshell, investigation discloses that the first information report in B.13 Pothanur police station Crime.No.1067/2006 under Section 120 (B) IPC read with Section 5 of Explosive Substances Act, 1908 and seizure of mahazars [inspection notes] relating to the so-called recovery of bombs are fabricated and false. The statement of witnesses recorded by me conclusively confirms the above said facts and hence, I am treating this case as ‘false'.”

The FIR traces the history of the case as follows: S. Balraj, who was the then Inspector of Police of Pothanur in Coimbatore, registered a case under Sections 120 (B) IPC (criminal conspiracy) read with Section 5 of the Explosives Substances Act, 1908 (punishment for making or possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances) against five persons – A. Haroon Basha (first accused), A. Malik Basha (second accused), R. Bolo Shankar alias Athikur Rahman (third accused), A. Ravi alias Thippu Sulthan (fourth accused) and A. Samsudeen (fifth accused) on July 22, 2006.

The FIR further said that the search at Haroon Basha's house by the inspector in the presence of two witnesses at 4-15 a.m. on that day resulted in the seizure of several “incriminating documents”. Haroon Basha was arrested at 5-15 a.m. The entire operation, involving the arrest of the accused and the so-called seizures, lasted nearly nine hours, up to 12-45 p.m. On the basis of Basha's “confessional statement”, the other accused were nabbed, the FIR said.

According to it, he confessed that all the five persons were members of the Manitha Neethi Pasarai (MNP) and “since they wanted to take revenge for the atrocities committed against Muslims, they decided to create terror and a sense of fear among the public of Coimbatore....” To achieve that “he made a bomb using two pipes and a battery and another hand-throw type bomb”, which was “kept safely” at the residence of Athikur Rahman.

The FIR stated that having decided to plant the bombs at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital on July 22 afternoon, they brought the fourth accused (Thippu Sulthan) from Dindigul for this purpose. It added that the accused had held discussions and “conspired at his house”.

Balraj brought all the “accused” and the “seized properties” to the Pothanur police station at 2-15 p.m. and registered the case. The next morning they were produced before the Judicial Magistrate VII, Coimbatore, and remanded and lodged at the Central Prison in Salem. On July 24, 2006, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Prohibition and Enforcement Wing), Coimbatore city, S. Nizamuddin, took up further investigation in the case. However, the SIT took over the original case diary on August 4, 2006.

In its 27-page final report, also called “referred [that is, closed] charge sheet”, the SIT pointed to several gaps, inadequacies and discrepancies in the police investigation. Was any radio message sent to the DGP, ADGP (Intelligence) and ADGP (Law and Order) as per the Police Standing Order 579, as the case related to seizure of bombs? it asked.

Inspector Balraj's case diary stated that no higher police officer visited the scene of arrests or seizures and that he alone handled the entire operation from the early hours of July 22, 2006, to 2-15 p.m. on the same day, the SIT report said. “It is not known on whose instructions the inspector had summoned so many police personnel from other police stations… and acted on his own accord. But someone is behind the situation,” it said.

The SIT visited the scenes of crime at Nanjundapuram Itteri, Ganapathy and Gnanasundari Nagar and made sketches and observation mahazars at the places from where the accused were arrested and the explosives were allegedly recovered. The team also questioned people in the neighbourhood. “Though these witnesses have spoken about the visit of local police officers and the arrest of the accused… and securing of two other persons, Abdulla Basha and Fizal, none has spoken about the recovery of the explosives from the house of A.3 [Athikur Rahman] and A.4 [Thippu Sulthan],” the report said.

The SIT officials also interrogated the five accused at the Central Prison in Salem from August 9 to 11, 2006, and recorded their statements in the presence of the jailor.

According to the SIT report, its investigation showed that the then Assistant Commissioner of Police (Intelligence) V. Rathinasabapathy [who is now Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Prohibition and Enforcement), Coimbatore] had formed three teams of police officials on July 21, 2006. Each team was headed by an assistant commissioner of police.

The SIT report states that contrary to the claim made by Inspector Balraj that he had raided all the scenes of crime, secured the five accused and recovered the pipe bomb and the hand-throw bomb from the third and fourth accused pursuant to their confessions, the arrests were made by the three teams and the accused were brought to the office of the then assistant commissioner of police (intelligence) between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. on July 22, 2006.

Though the assistant commissioners of police who secured the accused actually denied having arrested them, other members of the raiding teams, including constables, both men and women, and head constables had admitted this, the report said.

“The other witnesses collected during the investigation exclusive of the police officials lend assurance to the fact that absolutely a false case has been registered and a false recovery of explosives were effected,” it added.

Though the FIR claimed that the explosive materials had been recovered in the presence of Vijayakumar, Village Administrative Officer of Kurichi, and A. Kumarasivam, Revenue Inspector of Perur, and the bombs were allegedly defused and dismantled by Sub-Inspector in the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) R. Mahendran, the SIT report said all the three had denied their presence at the scene of crime when the seizure mahazar was prepared. Under the instructions of the higher-ups, they visited the Pothanur police station later and signed the relevant documents.

“Further my investigation discloses that the recovery of explosives (pipe bomb and hand-throw bomb) would not have been true…,” the SIT chief said and added that the “available records such as seizure mahazar, FIR, etc., have been fabricated….” General diary entries at the police stations concerned were among the official documents that the SIT relied on in the process of investigation and in writing its report.

The court of the Judicial Magistrate VII accepted the SIT report on December 20, 2007, and closed the case, rejecting a “protest petition” filed by a police officer. The court order has not been challenged in any other proceeding.

Speaking to Frontline, Haroon Basha recalled the dark days when he was subjected to a virtual social boycott. The jewellery units and showrooms that used to give him orders for printing bill books and advertising materials abruptly stopped placing fresh orders. Some of them bluntly asked him not to approach them for orders.

Even some of his relatives and friends shunned him. “I had to struggle for months to convince some of my relatives that I am guiltless. I am pained that some of my close friends have severed links with me,” he lamented. As he could not get job orders, Basha worked in a fruit juice stall for some time washing glasses. “Now life is limping back to normal, as some of my erstwhile clients have started placing orders for bill books and advertising materials.”

With great difficulty, Malik Basha was able to resume his motor coil winding job. When he was in police custody, a psychiatrist of the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, after examining him, certified that “stressful situations could precipitate an episode of bipolar disorder” in him. Even today he is under medication.

In the case of Samsudeen and Thippu Sulthan, they could not continue in the private company where they were working before their arrest. “Even when we managed to get some job in business firms, we were asked to quit once the managements came to know of the case. We are living in a condition of perpetual instability,” Samsudeen said.

Human rights organisations and some Muslim outfits have welcomed the SIT's final report and demanded action against police officers who investigated the case. However, Rathinasabapathy was promoted as Additional Deputy Commissioner (Prohibition and Enforcement). The then Director General of Police, K.P. Jain, said that the findings of the SIT report “implicating” V. Rathinasabapathy and S. Balraj were “without any basis”. He also denied that the case was “falsely put up… to get departmental promotions”.

K.P. Jain's response came in a counter-affidavit filed before the Madras High Court in November 2008 on the MNP's writ petition seeking action against the police personnel involved in the Coimbatore conspiracy case, besides providing compensation to the arrested persons.

In the counter-affidavit, K.P. Jain stated: “[The accused were arrested] only on valid grounds for having committed cognisable offences of manufacturing and possessing of bombs for the purpose of exploding them at various places in Coimbatore city on important days like Independence Day and Vinayagar Chaturthi Day. There is no unconstitutional deprivation of any fundamental right, and the petitioner is not entitled to claim for compensation.”

Flaying the Coimbatore police for foisting cases on innocent persons belonging to the minority community, local Member of Parliament and CPI(M) leader P.R. Natarajan urged the State government to initiate follow-up measures.

“Since the CB-CID probe was ordered by the government, it is duty- bound to take steps on the basis of the SIT's findings. Action should be taken against the police officers who booked the youth under false charges and the victims should be assisted to return to normal life. It is unfortunate that the police, who have to maintain law and order, fabricated this case to generate tension in a communally sensitive city,” he said.

The State unit of the National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations asked the government to provide compensation to the victims of the false case from the provident fund of the erring police personnel. It also demanded action against the police personnel involved in the case under Sections 191-195 of the IPC for giving and fabricating false evidence. Without any further delay they should be placed under suspension and after due enquiry they should be dismissed from service, it said.

Expressing similar views on the issue, A. Marx, organiser of the Tamil Nadu chapter of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, called for action against the police for filing a false case, fabricating evidence and sowing seeds of hatred and enmity among different communities.

“The government cannot afford to be insensitive to the issue and it should initiate measures, particularly against the backdrop of the Chief Minister declaring at the ruling party rally in Coimbatore on August 2 that his government stood for safeguarding the welfare of the minority communities,” he said.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/stories/20100827271702100.htm