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Naquee arrest: Activists approach home minister for justiceOT, January 19, 2012 20:02 IST By Shabnam Hashmi, Manisha Sethi and Ahmed Sohaib
A series of recent events has led to the arrest of a youth, Naquee Ahmad by the Maharashtra ATS on January 10, 2012. Naquee, a resident of Shaheen Bagh, was enlisted by the Special Cell, Delhi Police to help them solve a terror case and tracking down two suspects from Mumbai. Two officers of the Special Cell, Lalit Mohan Negi and Hriday Bhushan, were in touch with him. Their phone records will easily attest to this. In connection with their investigation, Naquee was often summoned to the Special Cell office in Lodhi Road between December 9, 2011 and January 7, 2012. He was even taken to Mumbai on two occasions. The first Mumbai visit was on December 10, 2011 by the 10:30 am Go Air Flight, to identify the locality in which the two suspects had rented a flat. It was on the second visit, on January 8th-9th 2012, when the Special Cell asked him to accompany them in order to identify the two suspects, that Naquee was arrested by the Maharashtra ATS. His elder brother, who lives in Mumbai, was also taken into illegal custody. Yesterday (18.01.2012), a team of ATS — headed by ACP Kamat — arrived from Mumbai in Delhi to subject Naquee’s brother to questioning. We were witness to that questioning and it was obvious that the ATS was shooting in the dark. They constantly asked what his brother had revealed to the Special Cell. When we asked the ATS officers why they could not directly seek the information from the Special Cell instead of terrifying the innocent boy by their interrogation, they replied that this was not done. The issue that we draw your attention to is the fact that competition between different investigative agencies has created a ‘free for all’ wherein young men, belonging to a particular community can be picked up at will — secretly it seems, even from fraternal agencies. The lust for promotions, awards and media headlines has let loose a cynical ruthlessness that is becoming difficult to contain. And in these cut-throat organizational rivalries it is the innocent Muslim youth who are being sacrificed. The matter is simple: here was a young man willing to offer his best cooperation in an effort to help the police in their anti-terror operations, but is himself claimed by the one-upmanship among various investigative agencies. Is this how the ‘war on terror’ will be fought: By victimization, harassment of Muslims and violation of the due processes of law? We seek your urgent intervention to put an immediate stop to this sort of terrorization of Muslim youth and their families. The process of investigation and questioning must be transparent and the due process must be strictly adhered to. All those arrested be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours and illegal detentions and interrogations in such detention must be strictly punished. (A slight edited version of the letter written to Home Minister P. Chidambaram and the commissioner of police Delhi by (ANHAD) and Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association) DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in the letter are of the activists and do not necessarily reflect those of the OKhla Times Post a comment Top News
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