The fall guys

http://www.frontline.in/stories/20110211280311000.htm

Volume 28 - Issue 03 :: Jan. 29-Feb. 11, 2011
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

SINCE 2002 there has been talk of Hindu extremist groups orchestrating acts of terror. For various reasons, which include lack of substantial evidence and unwillingness to rock the political boat, few from these groups were actually arrested for these crimes. In 2008, when the chief of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) Hemant Karkare (who was killed in the terror attacks in Mumbai in November that year) cracked a lead, a band of Hindu fundamentalists were eventually arrested for the Malegaon blasts of September 8, 2006.

In Maharashtra, when any bomb attack happened, the practice of the police, in their haste to prove they were on the job, was to arrest several Muslims on the grounds that they were members of terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and hold them responsible for the incident. The recent confessions of Swami Aseemanand, leader of the Hindu extremist outfit Abhinav Bharat, that Hindu groups were behind the blasts in the powerloom town on the night of Shab-e-Bharat (a Muslim festival) comes as a huge setback to the ATS in the State. Thirty-one people died in the attack.

This would mean that the investigations so far have been practically null and void. In the event, what happens to the nine Muslim men arrested and charged with the crime? They have spent four years in jail. All the nine have since moved a special court set up under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) for bail. In their application they have claimed that it is clear that those responsible for the blasts are persons far removed from the (current) accused.

Their lawyers and relatives have maintained all along that the men were forced to sign false confessional statements. Aseemanand's confessions raise several questions: What was the evidence that led the police to these men? Have they fabricated the case against the accused? How can they slap charges without substantial evidence? And, why were these men denied their constitutional rights?