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Branded Terrorist, he lost 14 years in Jails

By Indrani Basu
Updated Saturday, 11 February 2012 13:02:06 - IST (UTC +5:30)

NEW DELHI: As 18-year-old Mohammad Amir Khan walked to see a hakeem in Bahadurgarh on the night of February 20, 1998, his biggest worry was the kidney stones he had developed. Little did the teenager know that unforeseen problems were about to overtake his life in the next hour.
Named a terrorist and accused of involvement in 19 cases of bombings in Delhi, Rohtak, Sonepat and Ghaziabad between December 1996 and October 1997, Amir spent 14 years in different state jails. His family faced social shame and financial ruin, his father died of a liver ailment that could not be treated in time and his mother suffered a brain haemorrhage that left her paralyzed and speech impaired.
When he walked out of jail in January this year after being acquitted in 17 cases, Amir had already served more time in jail than the maximum term he could have got on conviction.
In each acquittal, the sessions court judgments pointed to the absence of incriminating evidence after prosecution witnesses testified that they had been made to sign on blank papers and had never seen Amir earlier. He is awaiting the high court's decision in two cases now - a Karol Bagh bombing and a case under the arms and explosives Act.
On the fateful night, Amir, son of a small-time toyshop owner, had not noticed a white Gypsy that had been trailing him. Unknown men flung open the door and pushed him inside. While rough voices shouted expletives, his hands and feet were quickly bound up, and he was blindfolded and gagged. "I thought I was being kidnapped as I didn't know that the men in civil clothes were actually policemen," he recalls.
Amir's horror had just started. "I was led to an unknown place where voices echoed. They stripped me naked, pushed me against a wall and forced me to open my legs wide enough to be in a straight line with the wall. A log was lodged between my thighs so I remained in the incredibly painful position while I shrieked in agony. I was beaten, petrol was poured into my private parts, I was made to drink water mixed with detergent and sometimes given electric shocks. Sometimes, I was made to lie down on the ground while heavy metal pipes were rolled over my body. In between the 'treatments', I was made to sign papers and copy down lists of things in diaries. In that one week, I lost my youth," he says.
Formally "arrested" on February 27 that year, Amir was produced in court the next day and charge-sheeted as a criminal mastermind a few months later for planning serial blasts in moving buses, markets and the coaches of Frontier Mail. "In court, I didn't even understand what was going on because they spoke in English. Later, while reading the charge-sheet I found out that I had supposedly been arrested near Old Delhi Railway Station and a briefcase with a revolver, explosives and - absurdly - my school marksheets, character certificate and ration card was found in my possession. What would a terrorist with explosives be doing with his school character certificate?" he asks in bafflement.
While the cases dragged on for years, Amir's parents came to know about his arrest only from newspapers. "We had no money, so my father sold off the property we had, neglected his business as he tried to find me lawyers, and ultimately died of a liver infection that was never properly treated because he was too preoccupied and under debt. My widowed mother fought on for four more years until she, too, suffered a brain stroke that left her paralysed. Our family has been ruined," he says.
Amir was shifted from one jail to another and sometimes left without a lawyer as he fought the cases. One of his co-accused was poisoned mysteriously in Dasna Jail for which the jail superintendent was charged with murder. "One day, a Hindi newspaper reported that I was a Pakistani. No lawyer would then help me, and I was treated with suspicion and distrust in jail. An especially painful memory from then is of my aged mother drawing herself up the steep steps of the Ghaziabad court in heavy rain. I watched her from the court lock-up and wished I had died rather than see her undergo such torture," he says, tears welling in his eyes.
Around that time, in 2007, well-known human rights lawyer ND Pancholi took up Amir's case and has been his counsel ever since. "We are hopeful that Amir will be acquitted in the remaining two cases as well, much like the other cases which were disposed of," says Pancholi. (Curtsy: TOI, 09.02.12)
Times View
The case of Mohammed Amir cannot simply end with his acquittal by courts in almost all the cases filed against him. The courts have repeatedly held that the prosecution has not been able to present any evidence incriminating him, leave alone proving the charges. Therefore, the state must compensate him for wrongful confinement. Arrested at 18 and let out at 32, the prime of his life has been snatched from him, not to mention the damage done to his reputation. The compensation must cover not only potential earnings for this period but also add on penal amounts for defamation. Compensation apart, the police should realise that every such wrongful arrest adds to the sense of injustice in the minority community and plays into the hands of fundamentalists.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Branded-terrorist-he-lost-his-youth-in-jail/articleshow/11816184.cms

Tags: Indrani Basu Branded terrorist, Aamir, Jail, youth, Delhi Police, acquitted,

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