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Posted on 14 September 2012
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| CURRENT AFFAIRS |
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HUMAN RIGHTS |
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Terror Cases of the Delhi Special Cell
The Special Cell has been systemically incriminating Muslim youth in the Capital for alleged terrorism, reports Soumik Mukherjee
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Illustration: Samia Singh |
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Acquitted of all the charges slapped against him by the Delhi Police Special Cell, 32-year-old Mohammed Amir Khan walked out of the gates of Rohtak Jail in January 2012, to find out that the world outside had changed. He felt as if he is from a different planet. After all he was only 18 when he was first detained. “I’m yet to learn how this thing operates,” Amir refers to his phone while talking from the other side of the line. “Before going to jail I had only heard of the internet and mobile phone,” he says.
On the night of 20 February 1998, a few strangers picked up Amir from the Bara-Tuti-Chowk in north Delhi. He initially thought that he was being kidnapped, only to find out later that the personnel of the Special Cell of Delhi Police detained him for his alleged involvement in multiple bomb blast cases in the National Capital Region (NCR).
“I was kept in a small cell for a week before I being produced in the court,” Aamir says. After that it took him 14 years to come out with a clean chit. In the process his entire youth was wasted.
Amir Khan is one of the many who was framed by the special cell of Delhi Police with false cases of terrorism, only to be acquitted later as the police couldn’t provide evidence or substantiate its allegations. Now, the Jamia Teachers Solidarity Action has published a report compiling as many as 16 of these cases. Most of the cases follow the same pattern. Individuals from the minority community were linked to Islamist terror outfits and were accused of spreading terrorism in northern India. In most of the cases, the court slammed the police for not having enough or any evidence to support its claim.
One of the most interesting cases among these was that of Tariq Dar. Tariq who moved to Bangladesh and was working as a model, was apprehended by the Bangladesh government. While he was in the Bangladeshi custody, the Indian Embassy sent repeated rejoinders to release him. Dar was released by Bangladeshi authorities only to be detained by the Delhi Police Special Cell, as soon as he reached Delhi. He was whisked away from the airport to an unknown place to be 'interrogated’. He was released three months later.
Another case is Syed Maqbool Shah’s. Shah was arrested from his Lajpat Nagar residence for his alleged involvement in the Lajpat Nagar blast that left 13 people dead on 29 May 1996. Before being acquitted in 2010, Shah already had spent 14 years in the Tihar Jail. The judgment said that all the charges against him were based on speculations.
Now, Shah, who lives in Kashmir doesn’t know how to react to the entire incident. “During my time I lost my father and couldn’t even reach my father’s funeral because I was only a suspect,” says Shah.
Soumik Mukherjee is a Photo Correspondent with Tehelka.
soumik@tehelka.com
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