Malegaon Blast Case – ATS Credibility not Hindutva on Trial

4th update – There are now 4 contradictory versions on the origin of this transcript. CNN-IBN says its a tape, NDTV says its an eyewitness account of a phone conversation, Indian Express says its a hearsay account of conversation in a room in Ujjain where, apart from Ramji and the Sadhvi, a third person was present, who is now a witness. This witness, who was present in that room, gave a 15-page statement with details of the alleged conversation at the Mazgaon magistrate?s court on October 23. The Telegraph says its a wiretap of 400 minutes of phone conversation recorded a few days after the blast. That about sums up how credible the ATS’s case against the accused.

3rd Update – Now the Indian Express and the Telegraph contradict each other highlighting the abysmal standards of journalism of the Indian Media. According to the Telegraph the transcript was from 400 minutes of recorded telephone conversation independently corroborated by an eye witness. According to the Indian Express the transcript was of a real conversation inside a room in Ujjain between two of the accused with the eyewitness physically present.

How pray can two media outlets covering the same court room proceedings have such dramatically different accounts of what happened ?

Is it so impossible to get basic journalism right in courtroom in Nasik ?

2nd Update – We are also now being told that this transcript is based on an eye-witness. Now here we were thinking this was a wiretap. No folks it was not.

So who is this eye-witness who managed this incredible feat of listening to both sides of a telephone conversation. That must have taken some superhuman hearing skills.

1st Update – Since Offstumped went to press with this post, IBNLive is reporting that the court was shared with a transcript of an alleged phone conversation between 2 of the accused. While it is unclear when this conversation took place it is rather strange that the accused should be discussing the blast 25 days after the incident. A simple google search reveals that the last time the motorcycle was referenced in the media was on Oct 13th and which time the identity of the owner was still unknown. So it begs the question when and how did the accused become aware of the motorcyle being traced to her before actually being picked up by the cops. This transcript raises more questions than offers credible answers.

Offstumped has been reserved on passing judgement on this case since the rumors, first surfaced?on Malegaon.?In what is increasingly looking like an orchestrated media campaign?at the?behest of the Congress Party it is becoming clear that the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad?does not have a credible case in Malegaon.?

While the Mumbai 7-11 sham investigations and the subsequent Malegaon 2006 investigations were never conclusive if there was one thing about the recent Indian Mujahideen arrests it was the specificity of the case against the suspects.

While one may subscribe to the Innocent until Proven otherwise maxim, atleast in each of the arrests starting from Abu Bashir by the Gujarat police to the slaying down of Atif in the Batla encounter? in New Delhi to the arrest of Peerbhoy by the Mumbai ATS, the police were very specific on what each of these individuals, where and when with some material evidence to back those specific allegations.

The problem with the Malegaon fishing expedition is that we have heard more on the “larger conspiracy” and practically nothing on “who did what, when and where”.

The only specific facts of the case that the ATS has gone on record and the media keeps regurgitating at every opportune occassion are

- a bike that was apparently sold 4 years ago

- records indicating 400 minutes of cellular phone conversation between 3 individuals

That friends is about how credible the ATS’s case is against the Sadhvi. As Offstumped had initially suspected this is turning out to be more about the Congress’ attempt to divert attention away from its failures in the larger War on Terror and the Communal Socialists in the media are not disappointing it.

With the ATS’s credibility hanging by the thread the BJP has asked some tough questions of it. Offstumped has reproduced the same in full to demand that they be answered.\

Questions from the BJP on the Malegaon Blast Case.

The BJP has been clearly of the view that terrorism needs to be dealt with firmly and that terrorists have got no religion. In the last four and a half years, terrorist have only become emboldened because of the soft approach of the UPA government. At the same time, there ought not to be any sponsored investigation. If there is any evidence action must be taken and law should take its course. It is now so many days that Pragya Thakur is in the custody of Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) Mumbai, and no evidence till date has come in public domain much less credible evidence showing the complicity of Pragya Thakur in the Malegaon Blasts of 2008. Media has widely reported that nothing emerged against her even in the Polygraphy Test, Brain Mapping Tests and Lie Detector Tests. Therefore some very relevant questions do arise relating to the circumstances of investigation by the ATS of Malegaon Blast of 2008 in which Pragya Thakur is alleged to be involved.

ATS INVESTIGATION IN MALEGAON BLAST OF 2006

There was a bomb blast in Malegaon on 8.09.2006 near the Hamidia Masjid and Bada Kabristan in which 31 persons were killed and over 312 were injured. It was found relevant to examine the investigation report of the ATS, Mumbai pertaining to the said blasts and one is surprised to learn that all the conspiracy, motivation, lead and design found by the same ATS in the chargesheet including the complicity of terrorist elements including involvement of Pakistani terrorists in the Malegaon blasts 2006 has been completely reversed in regard to Malegaon blasts 2008. In the 2006 blasts, 3 cases were filed being Azad Nagar, PS Case No 95& 96/2006 and Malegaon City PS Case No 3088 of 2006. Vide the order dated 23/10/2006, the investigation of all the three cases was taken over by the ATS, Mumbai and the chargesheet (final report under section 173(2) of Cr.P.C) was submitted on 21/12/2006 under the signature of K.N Shengal, Assistant Commissioner of Police, ATS, Mumbai. It is very important to quote from the said Final report so that the suspicion with regards to the present investigation may be highlighted. Some of the major findings of the said investigation is being highlighted as follows

1. ?In order to exploit the communal sensitiveness of the said city (Malegaon), zealot leaders and members of the banned organization SIMI with their extremist ideology always tried to manipulate the situation by playing with the religious sentiments of the locals and incited them to avenge the alleged brutality committed on them?. ( Page 1 of the Report).

2. The ultimate intention was of stirring up communal riots by creating communal disharmony because the area had mainly a Muslim populace (Page 2 of the report).

3. SIMI by advocating, abating, advising and inciting the Indian Muslim Youth against the policies of Government of India to promote enmity between different groups on the ground of religion and the objective of the criminal conspiracy was to overawe the Government by causing communal riots all over the state (Page 4 of the Report)

4. Investigation has revealed that accused Mohammad Ali Alam Sheikh (A-6) went to Pakistan clandestinely to acquire training in terrorist camps. He also incited and sent Shabbir Ahmad Masiullah (A-2) to Pakistan for similar training. Mohammad Ali Alam Sheikh received a sum of Rupees 1.85 lakhs through Hawala from one Riyaz Bhatkal, a SIMI activist out of which he handed over a sum of Rupees 30, 000 to Shabbir Ahmad Masiullah (A-2) for the expenditure for obtaining training in Pakistan and thus there criminal conspiracy started taking shape (Page 4 of the Report).

Note ? The said Riyaz Bhatkal has also been found to be involved in the recent blasts in Gujarat, Rajasthan and other terrorist attacks. He is presently in the custody of Mumbai ATS but no Narco-Analysis at all has been done on him to unearth the nature of conspiracy.

5. In the pursuance of criminal conspiracy a meeting was held in the month of May 2006 at Malegaon in which 9 accused named in Paragraph 7, Page 6 of the Report participated and it was decided to carry out bomb blasts in such a manner and on such occasion that entire Muslim community would get completely infuriated and would come to the streets and resort to rioting and other law and order incidents thus disrupting the even tempo of the life of the community. (Paragraph 7, Page 6 of the Report).

6. In furtherance of criminal conspiracy, after the Bomb Blasts in local trains in Mumbai on 11th July 2006 a meeting was held in Mumbai in the 3rd week of July, 2006 where accused named in paragraphs 9 of the said report at page 7 participated where 2 Pakistani nationals, one of which was called Muzzamil (W-4) were also present with an intent to hatch a plan to commit similar acts of terror also in Malegaon. In the said meeting accused Shabbir Ahmad Masiullah (A-2) persuaded Mohammad Alam Sheikh (A-6) to make arrangements for providing necessary materials to assemble the bomb to be exploded in a religious place of Muslims in Malegaon so that Muslims would get infuriated (Paragraph 9 Page 7 of the Report).

7. The Selection of the Day of Shab-e-Barat falling on a Friday at the time of 1350 hours when there is likelihood of maximum impact with minimum damage to the devotees gathering for prayers and the location of Hamidia Masjid and Mushwart Chowk coupled with purchase of Bicycle from Hindu Shop owners was part of a deliberate and conscious plan to deflect the investigation away from organizations like SIMI and ensure that the focus of investigation shifted elsewhere. The choice of a Muslim religious place at Malegaon was deliberate as the conspirator decided that in order to incite the community only an attack of such a nature would give the desired result. (Para 14 at Page 8/9 of the Report).

8. The report mentions a total of 13 persons as accused out of which 9 were shown as arrested in the report and 4 are wanted. (Pages 12 & 13 of the Report). The Report in paragraph 25 at Page 13 states that all the accused are members of the banned organisation SIMI and were parties to a criminal conspiracy, the object of which was to overawe the government.

QUESTIONS

It is clearly evident that the ATS has a complete investigation report establishing the conspiracy by members of the SIMI who caused the Malegaon blasts including the vital fact that deliberately Bicycles were purchased from Hindu Shopkeepers to shift the focus of investigation and the whole objective was to cause communal unrest and overawe the government. In the case of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur surprisingly the story made out is that the scooter was at some point of time linked to her though it was subsequently reportedly sold or stolen away. The crucial question which emerges is as to why the investigation in connection with the 2008 Malegaon Blasts is not being conducted by the same ATS, Mumbai in the light of its own lead findings and conclusions relating to 2006 Malegaon Blasts as explained above. Is the ATS ignoring the earlier findings and leads deliberately. This suspicion becomes all the more credit worthy in view of the fact that no evidence much less credible evidence has been brought to light against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur till now. The BJP therefore demands as follows :

1. The ATS Mumbai must explain as to why it is not following at all the investigation in Malegaon 2008 blasts on the benchmark of the investigation in conclusion relating to 2006 blasts. This is all the more important because the role of SIMI in a series of Bomb Blasts all over the country is reappearing with alarming regularity and their involvement in 2008 Malegaon blasts also cannot be ruled out.

2. The nation is entitled to know immediately as to what is the evidence available against Pragya Thakur.

3. Mumbai ATS must explain as to why Riyaz Bhatkal, who was the Hawala link in 2006 Malegaon blasts and is found to be involved in a series of recent blasts all over the country has not been put to Narco Tests.

4. If the above questions are not satisfactorily explained at the earliest, it would be clear that the entire present investigation is lacking in fairness, transparency and may suffer the taint of a sponsored investigation.??

Filed under: Lok Sabha Polls 2008-2009, War on Terror, betrayal of aam admi , Whu