Speaking on the fourth anniversary of Batla House encounter, writer-activist Arundhati Roy charged that the said cell existed “merely to create fear” in the minds of minority.She along with noted jurist Rajender Sachar were speaking at a book release function at Jamia Millia Islamia.
“We should be looking at the forms and lines of state brutality. I do not think petitioning will help anymore. It is time to think politically ,” Roy said, adding, the debate was beyond religious lines as the Indian state had been trying to ‘militarize’ ever since it aligned with the countries like “US and Israel” .
Roy said, “we should be looking at the forms and lines of state brutality..I do not think petitioning will help anymore. It is time to think politically.”
Justice Sachar said the government had forgotten its “contract” to protect its people. He recalled his experience as a member of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), sedition charges were pressed against Maoist leader Seema Azad. He demanded repeal of the sedition law. Questioning the government’s intention he asked why Special Cell Officers who “framed youths did not face action. He said PUCL will help all the 15 men discussed in the book to get compensation.
The book titled Framed, Damned, and Acquitted: Dossiers of a Very Special Cell that examined 15 cases of Muslim men charged as terrorists and then acquitted by courts. Each of these men spent seven to 14 years in jail. The function was organized by Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity, which was formed after the Batla police encounter, in which two boys and one police inspector were killed. The JTS has been demanding a judicial probe into the encounter.
Later, the JSA said it was demanding several measures from the government on the eve of the Batla encounter . “We want a national commission of enquiry set up immediately to document and investigate all such police excesses across the country. Two, we want a comprehensive rehabilitation package, including assistance in education and occupation ,” said a representative . The group also demanded that the government and the police tender a public apology for their actions , the Special Cell be disbanded , and officers involved in the frame up be punished.
Well-Human right activist; N.D.Pancholi, lawyer and president of People’s Union for Civil Liberties; Syed Maqbool Shah and Mohammed Amir Khan, victims of police persecution who were found innocent of all criminal charges and acquitted after spending 14 years in prison also spoke on the occasion.
Other speakers included Manisha Sethi, president of JTSA; and Sanghamitra Misra, member JTSA; Trideep Pais and Jawahar Raja, lawyers who played a major role in writing the JTSA report.
Maqbool, a resident of Kashmir, narrated the woeful tale of his journey from Srinagar to Delhi for livelihood where he was picked up in 1996 for his alleged involvement in Lajpat Nagar blasts. I lost my father while I was in jail, I couldn’t even see his face. Depressed after seeing my condition in jail, my sister died too. My happiness was lost somewhere in the darkness of the cell, mourned Maqbool.
Aamir, a resident of Delhi, narrated a similar tragic tale of how he was tortured in police custody, how his father died while fighting for justice for his only son, how his mother got paralysed while he was languishing in jail, how all his dreams were shattered and how uncertain the future looked. I don’t call it arresting, I call it kidnapping, Aamir asserted.
He made a plea to the government to help in rehabilitation and compensation for all the victims of wrongful detention, fast and fair trials, and urged students to further the cause of truth and justice.
Following Amir, Pancholi said that there’s a need to set up organizations that can monitor the working of government agencies and the police. People need to raise their voice against injustice; otherwise democracy can’t be truly functional.
Sharing his experience of a visit to Kashmir in 1991 when curfews would be in place for almost 22 hours every day, he said how some Kashmiris questioned him, asking him, “In your nation of 80 crore people, are there not even 80 who can come forward and speak up for us?”
He emphasized upon the need to understand each other’s pain, to question the wrongdoings of police that is even supported by the government and called the meeting and the release of the report by JTSA as a big step in this direction, adding that the movement for truth and justice must move forward.
Senior Delhi Police officers, however, defended their special cell for its ‘successes and decorated’ officers. They hit back at the detractors asserting how an officer of the force inspector Mohan Chand Sharma lost his life in the encounter. Officers of the Cell claimed the most points made in the book, Framed, Damned and Acquitted were far from the truth, and that they would take “appropriate action if the facts were found to have been fudge.”
Police further claimed that 6 of the 16 cases discussed in the book actually ended in conviction, while one is pending trial. One case they said has not been investigated by the Special Cell at all.