http://www.indianexpress.com/
As Maharashtra ATS's 7/11 suspects go on trial, a look at
contradictions between its claims and those of Mumbai crime branch, and
the Malegaon connection
Between July and October 2006, Maharashtra's anti-terrorist squad arrested 13 people and claimed they had confessed they were responsible for that year's July 11 blasts that had killed 187 people in seven trains. The ATS filed a chargesheet that November 29. This was after all the accused had filed written submissions to a court on November 9, saying the confessions had been forced out of them under torture, but these received no attention against the ATS narrative.
The case against them is currently being heard in a special MCOCA court. During the years since their arrest, another set of people has been accused of the same attack by another wing of the police in the same state.
In 2008, the Mumbai police's crime branch arrested five alleged Indian Mujahideen men and claimed they were responsible for all major blasts since 2005, including 7/11. On October 7, 2008, a remand application was filed stating that "Afzal Usmani and the wanted accused who are part of the Indian Mujahideen have carried out the 7/11 train blasts, and all blasts in Mumbai since 2005".
Based on confessional statements attributed to these men, the Maharashtra additional chief secretary (home) in January 2009 and the Mumbai police commissioner in February granted sanction to prosecute Mohammad Sadiq, Ansar Sheikh and Arif Sheikh.
One confession was on October 18, 2008, recorded by DCP Vishwas Nangre Patil under section 18 of the MCOCA. "Sadiq stated that he, with the help of other IM members such as Riyaz Bhatkal, Arif Badar, Dr Shahnawaz and others, had carried out the 2006 train blasts, that they had also carried out all bomb blasts in Mumbai after 2005." The statements of Ansar Sheikh and Md Arif Sheikh, saying that "Sadiq told them that he had carried out the July 11, 2006, Mumbai train blasts" were recorded under MCOCA by DCPs Dilip Sawant and Milind Bharambe.
On February 17, 2009, the crime branch filed a chargesheet against a number of alleged IM operatives for hacking into email accounts and claiming responsibility for various attacks in the country. As reported in The Indian Express then, the chargesheet did not mention the initial claim that five of the accused were also guilty of 7/11. The defence case of the ATS's suspects, however, hinges around that initial claim.
Apart from the fact that two different sets of people were indicted for the same crime, there have been other question marks around the 7/11 probe. Call data records (CDRs) produced in the special MCOCA court have indicated that the phones of Ehtesham Siddiqui, Faisal Sheikh and Asif Bashir Khan, accused by the ATS of planting the bombs, weren't actually near the sites that day. On seven occasions, the ATS had cited CDRs to establish links between these accused and the Lashkar-e-Toiba while seeking their custody in courts, but then failed to produce the CDRs and claimed they had destroyed the records.
Another intriguing twist is that two of the 13 accused, Mohammad Ali Alam Sheikh and Asif Bashir Khan, were accused by the ATS in another case for which a fresh set of people was later indicted — the Malegaon blast of September 8, 2006. NIA investigations have since held a Hindu terror module responsible. These two are among nine ATS suspects; the other seven are out on bail but Sheikh and Asif remain in custody because of the 7/11 charges.
Though the ATS claimed to have arrested Sheikh on September 29, Sheikh claimed to have been in and out of police custody since August 1. Excerpts from his handwritten submission to the court on November 9, 2006:
Sheikh's statement
"I was detained illegally from August 1, 2006, to August 31 for enquiry at Kurla ATS office... On September 7, I was taken to ATS office, Nagpada, and detained there till September 28. I was told I need not worry and I would be allowed to go before Ramzan. On September 29, I was arrested and produced in court and I learnt that I was implicated in the train blast case...
"I was taken to my house and a pressure cooker was taken. When I asked what was happening, I was told they would make me a witness and that I shouldn't tell anybody. The ATS officers constantly asked me who all had come to my house and stayed how many days. I used to answer that no guests used to come as I live in a small house.
"On September 9, at around 6 pm, I was taken to the Nagpada office. I was taken to the office of (then ATS chief) K P Raghuvanshi by (ATS officer) Dinesh Ahir. Shailesh Gaikwad (ATS officer) also came. Raghuvanshi saab asked me if I know Mohammad Ali, a tailor, staying at Road No. 7. I said out of fear that I will enquire if there is such a person. Raghuvanshi saab told me that if I didn't find him, I was to be implicated.
"On September 26, around 5 pm, Raghuvanshi saab came to ATS Nagpada and I was threatened (and told) that my house has been used for working out the train blast. I denied it. I was told I would be given one hour to admit the same or else I would face the same consequences as the other accused.
"On October 3 (four days after the arrest), I told officer Sachin Kadam, 'Sir, why did you implicate me falsely?' On October 17, I was taken for a narco test. On October 20, around 11 pm, at Kala Chowki, Sachin Kadam showed me a photo of the Malegaon blast, abused me and said, 'What you have done in the Malegaon and Mumbai blasts, you have told us'. I told them... as I am not connected in any way in this case, how could I tell? I told the officers to show me the narco analysis CD. They started assaulting me.
"I was taken before Raghuvanshi saab, who had come to Kala Chowki. I begged for mercy. Raghuvanshi saab told me that if I didn't admit it and became an approver, I would be implicated in the Malegaon blast. Raghuvanshi saab hit me on the back. I sat down. I was assaulted on the head with a belt and blows from fists. I screamed in pain but officers Sachin Kadam and Raghuvanshi did not show any mercy. ACP Dhamle came and assaulted me and told me to confess to a false story... that if I don't create a story about the Malegaon blast, my entire family will be implicated.
"Raghuvanshi saab used to take the names of persons whom I had never heard of. He told me to say these persons had come to my house. I was also told by Raghuvanshi saab that Pakistanis had come to my house... I had to say yes to whatever they were saying as I was scared. Raghuvanshi saab had already prepared a story on the Malegaon blast and had written the following names on a piece of paper — Shabir Ahmad (Masiullah), Nurul Huda, Rayiz Ahmed, Dr Salman Farsi, Dr Waheed, Wajid.
"On October 20, 21 and 22, I was assaulted and hung upside down by ATS officers. On October 23, Raghuvanshi saab came to me and told me that now that the stories of both blasts had been prepared, I would be discharged and made an approver. And every month Rs 10,000 would be sent to my house.
"On October 24, A N Roy (then Maharashtra DGP) came with Raghuvanshi saab and told me that if I didn't become an approver and didn't sign on the confessional statement I would have to remain in jail for a long time, and if I cooperated with them, I would be released within one-and-a-half months.
"The ATS officers come to Arthur Road Jail and threaten all the accused. I apprehend the ATS officers will implicate me falsely in the Malegaon case."
Asif's statement
The name of the other man accused by the ATS in both 7/11 and Malegaon 2006, Asif Bashir Khan, had appeared in an alleged confessionn by Shabir Ahmad Masiullah. Masiullah told The Indian Express he was forced to sign on a paper and later found that Asif's name was part of it. Masiullah says he does not know Asif or Mohammad Ali Alam Sheikh. According to the ATS case, Asif had arranged the "leftover RDX" from the 7/11 blasts and given it to Masiullah and others for the Malegaon blast.
Excerpts from Asif's submission to the court on November 9, 2006:
"I was arrested by the ATS on October 3, 2006, from a friend's house in Belgaum. Police officers torture me and beat me brutally and take my signatures on blank pieces of paper... also threaten to shoot me in encounter.
"...I was taken to Bangalore for narco analysis on October 20... They again carried out a narco test on October 28 in Bangalore. On return, they kept me in custody and Mr Deshmukh Sir, police inspector, threatened me that if I did not confess, he would... implicate my brother and father, and my children would be sent to a remand home... The police also took me before the DCP, Borivali... he tried to force me to sign on a written document but I refused. I have been regularly tortured as I have refused to sign. The police also threaten that my family and I will be implicated in the Malegaon case."
Malegaon 2006
It was not the blast that led to the investigation. The probe had predated the attack; it was based on information on what was to come. In a statement that was treated as an FIR, assistant inspector Shripad Balkrishna Kale of Greater Mumbai Police, now DCB in Unit 7 at Ghatkopar, Mumbai, declared he "received information on August 1, 2006, through a reliable informant that one Shabir of Malegaon and Nafis of Shivaji Nagar, Govandi, Mumbai, who are connected with SIMI, were preparing to commit some sabotage acts in the Ganesh Festival". Kale said he informed his seniors and two squads were appointed, with senior inspector Rathod leading a squad to Malegaon and assistant inspector Kamble being sent to Shivaji Nagar, Govandi.
Kamble said the squads brought Masiullah, 38, who made and sold batteries and inverters, from Malegaon, and Nafis Ahmad Jameer Ahmad Ansari, 29, who worked as a computer operator in Mumbai's Shivaji Nagar, to the unit office. "On repeatedly and intensively interrogating the two persons, it was found that both of them are workers of SIMI. Further, it is learnt that both persons, through the said banned organisation, had gone from India to Pakistan via Dubai in or about May-June 2003 where they received arms training," Kamble said. "They had come back from Pakistan to Dubai and entered India from Kathmandu through the Bahraich border. Both of them had torn/destroyed their Indian passports at Kathmandu... the evidence of their having gone to Pakistan." The date of arrest in police records is August, 11, 2006, also the date of registration of the FIR.
Initially the case (FIR 1106/06 dated August 11, 2006) was registered with the Ghatkopar police station, then transferred to the DCB, CID Unit-7, the same day.
Masiullah and Nafis were charged under UAPA. Apart from the alleged plan to bomb the Ganesh festival on August 1, the ATS simultaneously accused Masiullah of planning the bombing of Muslim religious places on Shab-e-Baraat five weeks later in Malegaon. The ATS later alleged that Masiullah was the mastermind behind the 2006 Malegaon blasts. It claimed he and his accomplices had assembled the bombs in the last week of July, and kept them in a godown from where he ran his business of assembling inverters and batteries. He signed his "confession" on November 21, 2006; it was after that (on December 10) that the ATS raided his godown and claimed to have found traces of RDX in soil samples.
The ATS claimed that Mushiullah and Nafis were helping Riyaz Bhatkal, Tariq Sattar and Mohammad Ali Alam Sheikh. This is how Sheikh's name came up in that case. In the affidavit before the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal, senior inspector Udaisingh of Kherwadi Police Station said Masiullah and Nafis "repeatedly met Sattar and Mohammad Ali Alam Shaikh @ Aziz who also induced them to encourage to go to Pakistan" and "helped Nafis in getting a passport and helped both the arrested accused get a visa and plane tickets to Dubai".
Final twist
The government decided to hand over the case to the CBI; the ATS hurried to file its own chargesheet. In December 2010, Swami Aseemanand gave a confessional statement indicating that a Hindu terror module was responsible for the Malegaon blast. In April 2011, the NIA started probing the case afresh. On November 16, Masiullah was granted bail and released with six others. Only the two also charged in 7/11 remained in jail.
On December 15, 2012, the NIA arrested Rajender Chaudhary alias Pehelwan from Ujjain in connection with the Samjhauta Express blasts and he reportedly admitted that he and others had planted the Malegaon bombs too. The NIA chargesheet is expected to be filed soon.
Two terror attacks, four sets of accused, two names in common
Muzamil Jaleel : Mon May 13 2013, 00:13 hrs
Between July and October 2006, Maharashtra's anti-terrorist squad arrested 13 people and claimed they had confessed they were responsible for that year's July 11 blasts that had killed 187 people in seven trains. The ATS filed a chargesheet that November 29. This was after all the accused had filed written submissions to a court on November 9, saying the confessions had been forced out of them under torture, but these received no attention against the ATS narrative.
The case against them is currently being heard in a special MCOCA court. During the years since their arrest, another set of people has been accused of the same attack by another wing of the police in the same state.
In 2008, the Mumbai police's crime branch arrested five alleged Indian Mujahideen men and claimed they were responsible for all major blasts since 2005, including 7/11. On October 7, 2008, a remand application was filed stating that "Afzal Usmani and the wanted accused who are part of the Indian Mujahideen have carried out the 7/11 train blasts, and all blasts in Mumbai since 2005".
Based on confessional statements attributed to these men, the Maharashtra additional chief secretary (home) in January 2009 and the Mumbai police commissioner in February granted sanction to prosecute Mohammad Sadiq, Ansar Sheikh and Arif Sheikh.
One confession was on October 18, 2008, recorded by DCP Vishwas Nangre Patil under section 18 of the MCOCA. "Sadiq stated that he, with the help of other IM members such as Riyaz Bhatkal, Arif Badar, Dr Shahnawaz and others, had carried out the 2006 train blasts, that they had also carried out all bomb blasts in Mumbai after 2005." The statements of Ansar Sheikh and Md Arif Sheikh, saying that "Sadiq told them that he had carried out the July 11, 2006, Mumbai train blasts" were recorded under MCOCA by DCPs Dilip Sawant and Milind Bharambe.
On February 17, 2009, the crime branch filed a chargesheet against a number of alleged IM operatives for hacking into email accounts and claiming responsibility for various attacks in the country. As reported in The Indian Express then, the chargesheet did not mention the initial claim that five of the accused were also guilty of 7/11. The defence case of the ATS's suspects, however, hinges around that initial claim.
Apart from the fact that two different sets of people were indicted for the same crime, there have been other question marks around the 7/11 probe. Call data records (CDRs) produced in the special MCOCA court have indicated that the phones of Ehtesham Siddiqui, Faisal Sheikh and Asif Bashir Khan, accused by the ATS of planting the bombs, weren't actually near the sites that day. On seven occasions, the ATS had cited CDRs to establish links between these accused and the Lashkar-e-Toiba while seeking their custody in courts, but then failed to produce the CDRs and claimed they had destroyed the records.
Another intriguing twist is that two of the 13 accused, Mohammad Ali Alam Sheikh and Asif Bashir Khan, were accused by the ATS in another case for which a fresh set of people was later indicted — the Malegaon blast of September 8, 2006. NIA investigations have since held a Hindu terror module responsible. These two are among nine ATS suspects; the other seven are out on bail but Sheikh and Asif remain in custody because of the 7/11 charges.
Though the ATS claimed to have arrested Sheikh on September 29, Sheikh claimed to have been in and out of police custody since August 1. Excerpts from his handwritten submission to the court on November 9, 2006:
Sheikh's statement
"I was detained illegally from August 1, 2006, to August 31 for enquiry at Kurla ATS office... On September 7, I was taken to ATS office, Nagpada, and detained there till September 28. I was told I need not worry and I would be allowed to go before Ramzan. On September 29, I was arrested and produced in court and I learnt that I was implicated in the train blast case...
"I was taken to my house and a pressure cooker was taken. When I asked what was happening, I was told they would make me a witness and that I shouldn't tell anybody. The ATS officers constantly asked me who all had come to my house and stayed how many days. I used to answer that no guests used to come as I live in a small house.
"On September 9, at around 6 pm, I was taken to the Nagpada office. I was taken to the office of (then ATS chief) K P Raghuvanshi by (ATS officer) Dinesh Ahir. Shailesh Gaikwad (ATS officer) also came. Raghuvanshi saab asked me if I know Mohammad Ali, a tailor, staying at Road No. 7. I said out of fear that I will enquire if there is such a person. Raghuvanshi saab told me that if I didn't find him, I was to be implicated.
"On September 26, around 5 pm, Raghuvanshi saab came to ATS Nagpada and I was threatened (and told) that my house has been used for working out the train blast. I denied it. I was told I would be given one hour to admit the same or else I would face the same consequences as the other accused.
"On October 3 (four days after the arrest), I told officer Sachin Kadam, 'Sir, why did you implicate me falsely?' On October 17, I was taken for a narco test. On October 20, around 11 pm, at Kala Chowki, Sachin Kadam showed me a photo of the Malegaon blast, abused me and said, 'What you have done in the Malegaon and Mumbai blasts, you have told us'. I told them... as I am not connected in any way in this case, how could I tell? I told the officers to show me the narco analysis CD. They started assaulting me.
"I was taken before Raghuvanshi saab, who had come to Kala Chowki. I begged for mercy. Raghuvanshi saab told me that if I didn't admit it and became an approver, I would be implicated in the Malegaon blast. Raghuvanshi saab hit me on the back. I sat down. I was assaulted on the head with a belt and blows from fists. I screamed in pain but officers Sachin Kadam and Raghuvanshi did not show any mercy. ACP Dhamle came and assaulted me and told me to confess to a false story... that if I don't create a story about the Malegaon blast, my entire family will be implicated.
"Raghuvanshi saab used to take the names of persons whom I had never heard of. He told me to say these persons had come to my house. I was also told by Raghuvanshi saab that Pakistanis had come to my house... I had to say yes to whatever they were saying as I was scared. Raghuvanshi saab had already prepared a story on the Malegaon blast and had written the following names on a piece of paper — Shabir Ahmad (Masiullah), Nurul Huda, Rayiz Ahmed, Dr Salman Farsi, Dr Waheed, Wajid.
"On October 20, 21 and 22, I was assaulted and hung upside down by ATS officers. On October 23, Raghuvanshi saab came to me and told me that now that the stories of both blasts had been prepared, I would be discharged and made an approver. And every month Rs 10,000 would be sent to my house.
"On October 24, A N Roy (then Maharashtra DGP) came with Raghuvanshi saab and told me that if I didn't become an approver and didn't sign on the confessional statement I would have to remain in jail for a long time, and if I cooperated with them, I would be released within one-and-a-half months.
"The ATS officers come to Arthur Road Jail and threaten all the accused. I apprehend the ATS officers will implicate me falsely in the Malegaon case."
Asif's statement
The name of the other man accused by the ATS in both 7/11 and Malegaon 2006, Asif Bashir Khan, had appeared in an alleged confessionn by Shabir Ahmad Masiullah. Masiullah told The Indian Express he was forced to sign on a paper and later found that Asif's name was part of it. Masiullah says he does not know Asif or Mohammad Ali Alam Sheikh. According to the ATS case, Asif had arranged the "leftover RDX" from the 7/11 blasts and given it to Masiullah and others for the Malegaon blast.
Excerpts from Asif's submission to the court on November 9, 2006:
"I was arrested by the ATS on October 3, 2006, from a friend's house in Belgaum. Police officers torture me and beat me brutally and take my signatures on blank pieces of paper... also threaten to shoot me in encounter.
"...I was taken to Bangalore for narco analysis on October 20... They again carried out a narco test on October 28 in Bangalore. On return, they kept me in custody and Mr Deshmukh Sir, police inspector, threatened me that if I did not confess, he would... implicate my brother and father, and my children would be sent to a remand home... The police also took me before the DCP, Borivali... he tried to force me to sign on a written document but I refused. I have been regularly tortured as I have refused to sign. The police also threaten that my family and I will be implicated in the Malegaon case."
Malegaon 2006
It was not the blast that led to the investigation. The probe had predated the attack; it was based on information on what was to come. In a statement that was treated as an FIR, assistant inspector Shripad Balkrishna Kale of Greater Mumbai Police, now DCB in Unit 7 at Ghatkopar, Mumbai, declared he "received information on August 1, 2006, through a reliable informant that one Shabir of Malegaon and Nafis of Shivaji Nagar, Govandi, Mumbai, who are connected with SIMI, were preparing to commit some sabotage acts in the Ganesh Festival". Kale said he informed his seniors and two squads were appointed, with senior inspector Rathod leading a squad to Malegaon and assistant inspector Kamble being sent to Shivaji Nagar, Govandi.
Kamble said the squads brought Masiullah, 38, who made and sold batteries and inverters, from Malegaon, and Nafis Ahmad Jameer Ahmad Ansari, 29, who worked as a computer operator in Mumbai's Shivaji Nagar, to the unit office. "On repeatedly and intensively interrogating the two persons, it was found that both of them are workers of SIMI. Further, it is learnt that both persons, through the said banned organisation, had gone from India to Pakistan via Dubai in or about May-June 2003 where they received arms training," Kamble said. "They had come back from Pakistan to Dubai and entered India from Kathmandu through the Bahraich border. Both of them had torn/destroyed their Indian passports at Kathmandu... the evidence of their having gone to Pakistan." The date of arrest in police records is August, 11, 2006, also the date of registration of the FIR.
Initially the case (FIR 1106/06 dated August 11, 2006) was registered with the Ghatkopar police station, then transferred to the DCB, CID Unit-7, the same day.
Masiullah and Nafis were charged under UAPA. Apart from the alleged plan to bomb the Ganesh festival on August 1, the ATS simultaneously accused Masiullah of planning the bombing of Muslim religious places on Shab-e-Baraat five weeks later in Malegaon. The ATS later alleged that Masiullah was the mastermind behind the 2006 Malegaon blasts. It claimed he and his accomplices had assembled the bombs in the last week of July, and kept them in a godown from where he ran his business of assembling inverters and batteries. He signed his "confession" on November 21, 2006; it was after that (on December 10) that the ATS raided his godown and claimed to have found traces of RDX in soil samples.
The ATS claimed that Mushiullah and Nafis were helping Riyaz Bhatkal, Tariq Sattar and Mohammad Ali Alam Sheikh. This is how Sheikh's name came up in that case. In the affidavit before the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal, senior inspector Udaisingh of Kherwadi Police Station said Masiullah and Nafis "repeatedly met Sattar and Mohammad Ali Alam Shaikh @ Aziz who also induced them to encourage to go to Pakistan" and "helped Nafis in getting a passport and helped both the arrested accused get a visa and plane tickets to Dubai".
Final twist
The government decided to hand over the case to the CBI; the ATS hurried to file its own chargesheet. In December 2010, Swami Aseemanand gave a confessional statement indicating that a Hindu terror module was responsible for the Malegaon blast. In April 2011, the NIA started probing the case afresh. On November 16, Masiullah was granted bail and released with six others. Only the two also charged in 7/11 remained in jail.
On December 15, 2012, the NIA arrested Rajender Chaudhary alias Pehelwan from Ujjain in connection with the Samjhauta Express blasts and he reportedly admitted that he and others had planted the Malegaon bombs too. The NIA chargesheet is expected to be filed soon.
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