[nukkad] if u r bothered about the bombay blasts 1993

["GURUDUTT SONSURKAR" <>]

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Tip of the day:  Smile! 
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Varsha Bhosle
The blasted Bombay blasts
On October 9, The Times of India reported that "Trial in 1993 serial blast 
case concludes," seven years after 257 people were killed, 713 were maimed, 
and public property worth Rs 27 crores was damaged by Pakistan-guided 
Islamic terrorists on March 12, 1993, in Bombay. The CBI examined 684 
witnesses in the designated TADA court of Judge Pramod Kode, who was to 
decide on the CBI's plea to exhibit the chemical analysers' reports which 
are crucial as they pertain to the use of RDX in the blasts "allegedly" 
engineered by Dawood Ibrahim. After that, the CBI was to formally close its 
case "next week."

The newspaper informed us that the judge had directed defence lawyers 
Farhana Shah and Subhash Kanse to submit their reply "on Monday" (whether 
that's Oct 9 or 16 is unclear); the prosecution had recorded 12,000 pages of 
evidence before closing its case on September 27, and the CBI had produced 
2,500 documents as exhibits. The judge, after sifting through all the 
evidence, was expected to pose questions based on the evidence cited by the 
prosecution to each accused on his role in the blasts. The statements of the 
accused would then be recorded under Section 313 CrPc which provides 
undertrials an opportunity to fortify their defence, and is a time consuming 
process (the work of framing the questions had already begun). Thereafter, 
both sides would present their arguments. Lawyers estimated that it would 
take the court at least two years to deliver a verdict. That's all. In 233 
words.

So I waited for "next week." Which didn't happen till two weeks later on 
October 24: "Mumbai blast accused exempted from appearance." We learnt that 
94 accused, including film star Sanjay Dutt, were exempted from appearing 
before the TADA court till November 5 due to Diwali vacations. Judge Kode 
permitted them to visit any part of Maharashtra in that period; to leave the 
state, they'd have to obtain prior permission.

Dutt was permitted to go abroad for the premiere of, of all the films, 
Mission Kashmir, yet another piece of shit that looks tenderly at Islamic 
terrorists; the plea was granted on condition that the star will not misuse 
his bail by establishing contact with the absconding accused. Another 
accused, Sharif Parkar, incarcerated since 1993, was permitted to attend the 
funeral of his mother and return to central jail the same day. Dutt's age 
wasn't mentioned, but ToI felt it was imperative for us to know Parkar's -- 
70 years. Parkar "is alleged to have participated in the landing of arms and 
ammunition at the instance of absconding accused Tiger Memon to cause serial 
blasts in Mumbai." The CBI submitted it had closed its case. Despite 
protests by the defence lawyers, the court allowed the CBI to exhibit five 
reports by the chemical analysers on the RDX used in the blasts. That's all. 
In 252 words.

When the special public prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam, examined the last 
prosecution witness, ToI reported it a week later, on October 4. In that 
account, we were told that the police had filed the chargesheet "way back" 
on November 4, 1993, but that the recording of evidence began only in July 
1995. Nikam said the first two witnesses to be examined were the "star" 
witnesses, approvers who had "thrown light on how the heinous conspiracy was 
hatched and executed." This report was all of 187 words.

The last time that ToI carried a fairly detailed report vis-à-vis the blast 
trial was on April 15, written by one Olav Albuquerque. The basic premise? 
"After a police inspector deposed recently that the two [Muslim suspects] 
had voluntarily made the confessions, the entire sordid tale of police 
torture and brutality emerged in the court room. TADA detenus' [sic] 
allegations about being tortured in police custody assume significance 
because confessions in TADA cases can be used to convict them." The chief 
analyst? "'Such confessions are extracted by torturing the suspects. The 
National Human Rights Commission gets hundreds of similar complaints,' said 
Thrity Patel, a professor of law from Nagpur and human rights activist."

We learnt the view of defence counsel Majeed Memon: "After being tortured by 
the police, can we believe that their confessions could be voluntary?" 
Heavens, we also read the words of Inspector Shinde, suspected of being the 
tormenter: "Today, I do not remember whether on the said day, Salim Khan had 
complained to the designated court that the police had assaulted him while 
he was in their custody and that his right hand was immobilised and that he 
was assaulted the previous night." However, even after scrutinising the 
report, this fundie couldn't discern to whom the writer was referring in the 
opening sentence, "Lawyers have questioned the authenticity of 
confessions..." Unless, of course, the HR-activist-cum-professor and the 
defence counsel constitute the all-encompassing "lawyers."

Such has been the coverage of the Bombay blasts trial. When the Press 
actually bothered to cover it, all the views of the defence were aired, 
while not a word from the prosecution was cited -- except when it sounded 
dubious. In truth, I'm handicapped: The blasts occurred before I took up 
writing and so I've few clippings. But even if that file were thick, it 
would be useless. For when I did get interested and searched, I found that 
the Press shied from publishing details about the accused -- other than 
their sufferings under the evil TADA, enforced by the equally evil police. 
In May 1997, I wrote in The Sunday Observer:

"Take this masthead story from The Bombay Times: 'Zubeida will turn three 
years old this July. Daughter of Rahin and Yakub Memon, two of the 11 
members of the Memon family charged with masterminding the March 12, 1993 
bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai... the chances of Zubeida's reunion with her 
parents seem dim... these poor people do not have the money to pursue the 
case till the Supreme Court.' Excuse me while I disgorge my lunch, but is 
this a 'human interest' topic? I wonder why this bleeding heart didn't do a 
similar one on those children who will never reunite with their fathers 
since the latter were splattered all around Century Bazaar in 1993!"

What about the trials and tribulations of the families of the 257 killed and 
713 maimed? Did they all receive the extremely paltry ex-gratia payment of 
Rs 2 lakhs promised by the state government? I don't know. What I do know is 
that the National Human Rights Commission awarded a compensation of Rs 5 
lakhs as interim relief to Iqbal Ismail Haspatel's family "which was a 
victim of humiliation, harassment and torture in police custody" for 15 days 
(naturally, The Hindu, February 21). So, the Muslim family received Rs 3 
lakhs more for being in jail. While Sarla Gidwani runs her late husband's 
business and demands that the guilty be given the harshest punishment; the 
family of Satish Hegde admits that it received no help from the government; 
Suresh Tandel asks, "How do I explain to my two young children that their 
mother has gone away for ever?"; Mangesh Patil, a factory worker, has to run 
a telephone booth after losing his leg (happily, rediff.com; unhappily, 
March 12, 1998).

I used to have stars in my eyes when I thought of journalism (thanks to 
Watergate). I believed it was a reporter's job to filter the information 
before influencing the public. For instance, take that, sob-sob, 70-year-old 
Sharif Parkar who has to, sniff-sniff, attend his mother's funeral. I found 
in my meager clippings this bit: "[former chief minister A R] Antulay's 
relative Sheriff Abdul Gafoor Parkar is in jail for helping one Dawood 
Taklya to go to Dubai to meet Dawood Ibrahim... Parkar alias Dadabhai had 
also helped the main accused, Tiger Memon, in landing the explosives at 
Shekadi in Raigad district, [Manohar] Joshi said" (rediff.com, February 24, 
1998). If I can stumble on this, can you imagine what those who have access 
to the humungous archives of ToI are likely to find? What "alleged to have 
participated"??

There's no doubt in my mind about the collaboration between the Muslim gang 
lords and Pakistan. The CBI states that from the compound of Al-Hussaini 
building, where the car bombs were prepared, it recovered cardboard boxes 
with the inscription "Wah Nobel Industries, Wah Cantt" printed on them. Wah 
Nobel Industries manufactures explosives and is situated near Wah Cantt, 
Islamabad. Working on the confessions of the arrested accused identified by 
eye-witnesses, the CBI recovered arms, ammunitions and explosives, of which 
I list a few: 62 AK-56 rifles; 280 AK-56 magazines; 38,888 ammunition for 
AK-56; 479 hand-grenades; 12 9mm pistols; 1,250 electric detonators; 2,313 
kgs RDX; 1,132.5 kgs gelatin; 50 initiating devices; 17 yellow grenades... 
And lawyer Majeed Memon says that the blasts was the handiwork of 
disgruntled Muslims who were upset by the Babri demolition: "There are no 
international ramifications to the case."

Not to forget Muneer Ahmed's book, published in Pakistan in 1997, which 
avers that the former president, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, had rebuked the then PM 
Nawaz Sharif for unleashing the ISI to take on Operation Bombay bomb blasts 
in 1993. It maintains that the Memon brothers were kept in Karachi as state 
guests before being dispatched to Dubai. The CBI discovered during 
investigations that about 30 young Muslims, all smugglers, were taken to 
Islamabad via Dubai for training in arms and explosives. The interesting 
fact that turned up was that their passports had no arrival or departure 
stamps of Islamabad immigration authorities. Meaning, no official records of 
Paki involvement. The CBI is "surprised" to note that "when the trainees 
returned from Islamabad to Dubai, they were permitted to enter Dubai without 
any objection, even though their passports did not disclose the port of 
embarkation."

The CBI must be remarkably naïve if it believes its own words. For anybody 
with a modicum of brains knows that all the dorks who are roosting in 
Karachi now couldn't have operated without the tacit approval of certain UAE 
authorities. And yet, the agency is breaking its balls to seek the 
extradition of Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon, Abu Salem and Chota Shakeel from 
the UAE under the extradition treaty between New Delhi and Abu Dhabi that 
was signed on October 25, 1999, and came into force on May 30 this year. In 
June 1997, the agency had first requested the UAE to extradite the dorks. 
Since then, it has reiterated its request more than 40 times... Indians 
don't have a clue how to conserve energy; the best way is the Israel way: 
sharpshooters.

Uff, I've digressed. The point I set out to make is, the Press is indeed a 
whore. It caters to nothing but public demand. If readers react in a certain 
way, a newspaper will instantly mould itself to it. Fact is, the blasts case 
is a Hindu-Muslim issue, and Hindus are indifferent to its resolution. 
Islamic rule of yore has left such terror in Hindu genes that as long as 
they can survive for one more day without another wound, they don't care 
about the truth and what causes their pusillanimity. For the communities are 
so obsessed with projecting their not-high-caste-ness or not-Godse-ness that 
equity goes to the dogs. Basically, Hindus are ashamed of being Hindu, and 
newspapers -- all run by pinkos-in-ideology-capitalists-in-wants -- know 
that. Therefore, the Sricrescent report and the scrapping of TADA and the 
farcical coverage of the Bombay blasts...

Varsha Bhosle

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