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Now the Andhra Pradesh government admits they are innocent and, as a ‘healing touch,” is offering them a “rehabilitation package” of Rs 30,000 and Rs-80,000 loans to buy autorickshaws.
Even this offer has come only after some of the men approached the Andhra Pradesh Minority Finance Commission for financial assistance saying they were unable to find employment after the “stigma” of the arrests — many lost their jobs and face ostracism by friends and family.
These men were picked up by police investigating the Mecca Masjid blast on May 18 that killed nine people and the Lumbini Park and Gokul Chaat House blasts on August 26 last year that killed 42 people.
As many as 22 of those picked up are free now, cleared of all charges; one is on bail in another case. After two haebas corpus petitions in the court following their arrests, the state government told the Andhra Pradesh Minorities Commission to look into allegations of police excesses.
The commission appointed advocate Ravi Chandran and a forensics expert from a government medical college to study the cases.
Their report, submitted to the government last October, (reported by The Indian Express, October 31, 2007) gave details of the alleged torture that the men were subjected to. The report draws from a medical examination conducted on 20 undertrials by Dr T Mahender Reddy, Professor of Forensic Medicine, government Kamineni Medical College, Hyderabad.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Minister for Minorities Welfare Mohammed Shabbir Ali says: “These youths turned out to be innocent. Police picked up a number of people for interrogation. Those who were innocent were given a clean chit and were allowed to go. Based on their allegations that they were detained illegally and that their names have been tarnished for ever, we are planning to compensate them. There is a stigma attached to them and the government should help them in rehabilitation.”
The Minister, however, says he doesn’t want to “blame the police at this juncture” in light of the torture report. “Police do their work based on information and sometimes the information can be wrong. Many youths were picked up but police filed cases against only 31. Instead of implicating the others in any other case, at least the police released them,” he says.
Says Principal Secretary, Home, Ajoyendra Pyal: “I have come to know of the minister’s statement. The police have their own methods of working. I cannot comment on why or how these youths were picked up and who turned out to be innocent. The police have so far not admitted that they made a mistake. If the case of these youths comes to me I will surely examine it.”
The police say they didn’t pick up these men directly in connection with the blasts at Mecca Masjid or Lumbini Park and Gokul Chaat. Says Hyderabad Police Commissioner B Prasada Rao: “The Mecca Masjid blast case still remains unsolved. (There is) not even a single worthwhile clue in that case. As for the Lumbini Park and Gokul Chaat case, we only know of the persons arrested by Mumbai police recently claiming that they were behind these blasts. Police arrested youths in Hyderabad during the course of blast investigations but they stumbled upon these youths for other reasons. A majority of the cases filed against them are conspiracy to spread communal hatred, forging of documents, obtaining SIM cards by providing false information and personal details and forging papers to acquire passports, and possible connections with SIMI. Of course, once they were detained, police also probed if they had anything to do with the blasts. These youths had nothing to do with the blasts but cases have been filed against them for the original reason they were picked up. Some youths have been acquitted but we are preparing to go an appeal.”
“...From the injuries, inference drawn can be: partially healing and healed injuries are of age group ranging from one to three weeks old. Small pinpoint abrasions noted around nipples are possible by electrocution with very small-voltage electricity. Other possibility of pin-point abrasions can be due to pricking by sharp needle-like objects,” says Reddy’s report, of September 18, 2007.
Among the alleged torture cases, as per the report:
•Ibrahim Junaid, 25, student of Unani Medicine: Report says he was stripped and subjected to third-degree methods. Legs “completely spread apart to hurt the groin area, electric shocks given at private parts.” Says Junaid, who is out on bail on a charge of inciting communal hatred: “My final year is now wasted. My friends don’t talk to me anymore...even my childhood friends maintain a distance. My relatives have also stopped visiting our house. Even on Eid, very few of them turned up to greet my family.”
•Mohammed Abdul Kareem, 24, auto driver and sweetseller: Beaten, hands and legs tied up, beaten on the soles of his feet, stripped, “shots” given through a small machine, repeatedly punched, abused, beard pulled and tufts of hair fallen.
•Shaik Abdul Khaleem, 19, medical lab technician: Arrested without being informed of any charge, no member of his family was informed, was blindfolded and taken to an unknown destination, beaten, hand and legs tied up. Beaten on the soles of his feet, stripped, shots given through a “small machine.”
•Mohammed Kareem Qadri, 23, watch repairer: Arrested without being informed of any charge, no member of his family was informed, blindfolded and taken to an unknown destination, beaten, hand and legs tied up. Was accused of being part of Mecca Masjid blast. Hands and legs tied and kept in a hanging position. A water bottle with two litres of water hung on his penis for about 25 seconds on two occasions.
•Abdul Sattar, 28, AC technician: Arrested without being informed of any charge, no member of his family was informed of his arrest or reasons for the same, was taken to the Bangladesh border from here. Was blindfolded and taken from place to place. Electric shocks given. Narco test done.
•Mohammed Fasiuddin, 19, part-time worker and student: Taken away without any information. Blindfolded in a Tata Sumo vehicle and taken from place to place. A sum of Rs 500 and bus pass seized. Can identify that he was taken near VIF Engineering College, physical and mental torture, blackmailed that members of his family will also be tortured and whisked away. Court cleared him of charges of procuring bulk SIM cards and smuggling in RDX.
•Mohammed Shahujauddin, 24, sofamaker: Taken away while taking wife to hospital. Beaten regularly every night on the soles of his feet with rubber belt. Produced before magistrate two days later. Had become unconscious. Court cleared him of smuggling charges.
•Abdul Wasay, 23, makes plastic spectacles: Toes tied up and beaten on the soles of his feet, shots given on private parts, legs stretched to such an extent that it affects groin area, feet and hands tied, suspended upside down for half an hour on more than one occasion, not allowed to sleep for several days during detention, stripped, tied up and beaten, given electric shocks, hit in the face with a rubber belt.
On Wednesday, Mohammed Rayizuddin, 26, a salesman at a jewellery shop, who lost his job following his arrest on August 31, 2008, was the first to be rehabilitated by an NGO, Nisa, with a loan of Rs 40,000 that helped him start a small electrical appliances service shop. The report says that while in police custody, Rayizuddin’s toes, legs and hand were tied and he was beaten on the soles of his feet.
The 7th Additional Sessions Judge, Nampally Court, recently rejected charges against four young men saying the prosecution failed to produce any evidence: Mohammed Kaleem, an MBA student; Imran Khan, a third year B-tech student; Abdul Majeed and Shoaib Jagirdar who were charged by the police with criminal conspiracy, waging war against the state and transporting explosives. According to the report, Imran Khan was hung from the ceiling with his hands and legs tied and severely beaten on the soles of his feet.
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Shame on Andhra government. Its simple understanding no country has ever grow by corruption, voilence and injustice. what one is going to acheive, rather have a good relation between all the inmates of the country. This is Utter shame. Can they give the time back to them.
What kind of humanity you call for this types of terror from Police is there a Law exist in India, if this contineus who will belive in Govt. its s shame on polcie.
Heart bleeds reading such stories. Justice must prevail at any cost. Those who perpetrated the crime (torture, abuse) must be punished. It is the only way, Indians in particular Muslims will have some faith in the government. Nobody is above the law.
Our hearts stop beating, a cold wave runs over the body when we read the attrocities faced by muslim brothers. Not only men, women are also being tortured as in SRnagar case. Police dept has become a open enemy of us. Inspite of Pragya Sadhya being accused in the Malegaon blast, no action is taken against her as she is a non-muslim. this is a clear stmt to say police dept is non-secular. We request you to be impartial to everyone. If this continues every muslim will become violent against govt.
Thousands of Kashmiri Pandits were threatened with murder and abduction of their womenfolk and forced to leave Kashmir to spend their lives in refugee camps.How come none of them has turned terrorist?The problem is with your ideology,you will become a terrorist,artocity or no artocity!You just want to kill others who you feel are non believers or infidels!
before pointing to others look into yourself how much hate u have .The whole world knows the plight of the Kashmiri pundits but no one wants to hear about the rest of the kashmiris suffering in the injustices commited by the indian army as well as the police.Rape ,police torture,abductions are all too common.
andhra pradesh police has made 70 new terrorist....
What happened to Supreme court in India?? Dont you take suo moto action??
what are you offering them is loan shame on you pay atleat two to three lakh to the victim, not as loan ju payment and forget it...............rajesh dharia.......................USA
We cannot call this inhuman acts and only humans abuse and torture other humans. No animal does it. The police are given too much of latitude to act like the way they have. Police brutalities are reported every now and then but nothing comes out of it giving more encouragement to thiese khakhi clad boys. In the US they have some Miranda act. This prevents the investigating authorities to even touch or question the accused till he has an attorney present. This sort of act is to be introduced here in our country to reign in the police.
We agree one hundred percent with Mr. Shiv.Good point Mr.Shiv. More and more readers should start clamoring for rights similar to Miranda rights as in the USA and other civilized countries to make India an advanced and civilized country Right now our police are worse than barbarians) Under this act the accused has the right to be speak to a lawyer, and to have an lawyer present during any questioning. If the accused cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for him at government expense. Anything that the accused say in front of his lawyer can and may be used against him in a court of law. That is okay since his lawyer was the witness. More knowledgeable intellectual readers of Indian Express and its journalists should start a people’s movement( Jihad) in achieving something similar to such western laws. This is a bigger Jihad.
SERIOUSLY SPEAKING,IS THIS THE FACE OF THE NEW 21ST CENTURY INDIA,I MEAN JUST READING THESE HORRIFIC INHUMANE N UNJUST TORTURE TALES OF MEN SIMPLY BIENG OPPRESSED N TORTURED BECAUSE THEY SAY OUR RELIGION IS ISLAM,I MEAN IS THIS WHAT THE RAMAYAN ,MAHABHARATHA,SITA DEVI,AND SHIVA,BUDDHA N RAM TAUGHT ITS FOLLOWERS,I KNOW WHAT THE GREAT PROPHET MOHAMMAD TAUGHT THE MUSLIMS ?HE SAID VERILLY THE SLIGHTEST KIND OF UNJUST HUMAN OR OPPRESSION OF THE ANIMALS IS WORST THAN COMMITTING SLAUGHTER ?AND EVEN AFTER ALL THIS NO KIND OF APOLOGY IS BIENG OFFERED TO MUSLIMS?(AMEEN).
Can you come out of this muslim / non-muslim mindset. We need to put in place better interrogation techniques in the police system, includes training in modern interrogative techniques and evidence gathering.
Peanuts are offered by the so-called AAM AADMI government.Minimum compensation should be Rs 5 lakhs plus employment offered in a government body so that these young people can regain their confidence and self-esteem.This should be benchmark for the future.
Now imagine if the draconian law that makes confessions in Police station as admissible in the court as evidence was active in Hyderabad, all these people would have been spending their whole life in the jail. Moreover, their near and dear ones would have become vulnerable to taking up law in their hands thereby starting a new episode of arrests. This is a viscious circle and we need to find a root cause to it and try to treat it from there.
The root cause is caste based and religion based politics. So remove the root cause, abolish all the political parties and change the constitution and go for a party-less democracy. The electoral college can be selected or elected based on the individual character. Let us deregister all the political parties, and burn their symbols and their flags, Our political scientists can work out an alternative secular based democracy that has no participation of political parties at all.
I am sorry my friends, but my tears are with you. I am at loss for words! I do understand both sides of the story, or so I think! But I would hate it if one of my close ones were picked up by the cops. It is even worse when they dont have the means to protect themselves (sigh). I can only pray that our intelligence services get off their a$$ and start finding a way out of the mess. Ofcourse, the idi0ts who claim to be ministers should also get their act together. I almost forgot the people who vote for their cast and religion and forget who the good candidate is......... and the people who died in the multitudes of bomb blasts around the country with no convictions. How do we find our way out of this quagmire?
Incredibly shocking. The boys must be rehabilitated. But these things are bound to happen when people only Class XII pass with mere pass marks are packed into the police forces in the name of Social Justice.
PART ONE: : Is there any blast bomb tragedy purported to be carried out by the Bajrang Dal ior other BJP outfits in which 70 people had been arrested and several of them brutally tortured subjected to various forms of torture during custody that lasted six to nine months: stripping, physical abuse, electric shocks, some had their beards plucked out; in one case, a two-liter water bottle was said to have been hung from the victim’s penis. etc? Why this brutal treatment to poor and innocent Muslims. What will the world community think about Indian police practices? Does it not confirm to the world that INDIA HAS BECOME A POLICE STATE as strongly asserted by writers and human right activists like Arundhati Roy. This sort of thing would have never happened if a good number of police officers( say about 15%) happen to be Muslims or truly secular minded officers. Imagine how the hard core RSS minded police officers would have handled these cases if they sit in power in all states.
I strongly condemn for muslims who have been picked, only few muslims are involved in it but just think about 42 innocent people lost lives, how there families are suffering many are women and childern, i support govt to question every citizen of india. Neighbouring country lost its honour due to religion and its activities i think it should happen in our country.we want a peaceful india police has a right to question all if they suspect, if some of your family member will be vicitim of blast then how will you respond.Think like indian.Nancy.
Going by the same token, if someone from your family was a victim of Police abuse, how would you have felt about it? Yes, Police do have right to interrogate, investigate but they also have a duty to treat the accused as human being. Either ways, a victim is a victim.
No one questions the right of the police to interrogate., But bring a law to do so in the presence of a lawyer as the laws are in the civilized countries. As terrorist have no religion, the victims are a mixed lot too when a bomb explodes at a market place, the bomb does not leave people belonging to a particular religion, caste, language etc. alone and safe. No one condones what is happening in Sri Lanka or Iraq or Afghanistan or any other country, we have to recognize the unity of humanity and equality of human beings in the sight of God. Castes and religions were not God-created,. Persecution of the innocent is worse than slaughtering. We must find ways and means to stop the police thugs using violence and terrorism to reduce their frustration. The law makers can not be the law breakers. Let a 100 guilty get away but make sure you do not hang the innocent and torture him.
PART TWO. This proves far beyond doubts that Indian Muslims are treated as shit , an slaves in India May God accept the crying, heart rendering supplications of the parents of these victims and punish the police officers in this world and if not in the next world. The prayers of the tortured are always accepted by God Almighty. Just imagine what would be the mind set getting developed by these young men? How many of them will follow the higher form of religious teaching that let bygones be bygones? How many of them would be waiting for and planning revenge and may even become terrorists, killing scores of innocent people of all faiths indiscriminately ( of course a big crime). Does not the stupid police officers realize that they encourage terrorism by their brutal methods. All those police officers involved in this brutality must be dismissed from their jobs to teach others a lesson.Indian Govt should seriously consider increasing Musim officers in the police force.
Now why the people are silent if this thing had happened in a Muslimcountry,It would have raised hackles like how Islam and Muslims are barbaric,Thank Allah we Muslims are different from the rest in terms of justice and fair play,See how the bali bombers were shot to death can indian govt do the same to people responsible for gujurat carnage,Preaching and practicing is different,
It is a positive step towards compensating for their stigma. I cant begin to imagine the changes and challenges these people were subjected to. But why cant they see it, the real problem is a pure direspect for the law from the Police. While it is true that Police force require a lot of freedom to curb terrorism, they just seem to think they can do whatever they want. This direspect for law and insensitivity to human beings make India a poor nation. Not money, not poverty, not caste, not religion. It is simply a basic disregard for the law and humanity.
Congratulations for that write up sister Nandini, India is still a country that we love simply because of fair minded people like you. Indian Govt has to brain wash the police force in India, to subscribe to your beautiful philosophy, to repeat your words " Not money, not poverty, not caste, not religion. It is simply a basic regard for the law and humanity." Of all the animal creations of Nature, man is the worst animal that has ever inhabited the earth, no other animal, dog, cat, tiger, lion, wolf, bear, or any tortures its own kind or other animals for deriving pleasure out of such torture, it kills other animals when it is hungry but not like the AP Police Animals who have tortured their own kind simply because they belong to their enemy castes and for deriving pleasure by physical violence, and make their parents cry and weep and swear and seek vengeance. Nothing wrong in worshipping in any temple as people want, please do but do not hate humanity and become brutes. Is it a sin that some people in India were born to Muslim parents?
Great to see so much of detailed explanation of the torture!!.. I now predict few more blasts by fundamentalists to take the revenge of this torture!! followed by arrests.. cycle continues.. no one wants to know the root cause of blasts...
Can we become noble gentlemen even when we work for military or police force ? When we stop treating muslims as targetsWhen we can stop treating Muslims as targets? Cannot we still be acting as humanbeings even working for military or police force? Don't we think Almighty Allah will be judging us for our actions we are doing all our lives?
Shakeel, the police dog does not believe in the Almighty God you are talking about, he will walk into the temple close to the police station where he works and meet his deity or goddess and get his guilt washed off by breaking a few coconuts and paying the priest. He thinks that was the end of his responsibilty, this is where religions differ.
Arsalan do not undermine other religion please do respect other religion that is same thing u do when u go to the mosque on Fridays.
Partience my brother... We need to think carefully how to solve this situation... the Government dosent care about us they just be impartial too us.. We need Unite muslims in under one banner that is our salvation. If not we will always face descrimination in this world