Author: Anuradha Dutt
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 7, 2008
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/132731/Cops-framed-up-Sadhvi.html
Maharashtra Police is shooting in the dark!
The main accused in the Malegaon blast case,
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, is reported to have told her lawyer Ganesh Sovani
that she has been framed. Her allegation may well be true in the light of
unfolding events. For, the sudden emergence of 'Hindu terrorists' in the wake
of the nationwide outcry over serial bombings, orchestrated by jihadi groups
in major cities, is certainly suspicious. Sceptics see it as a ploy to divert
attention from the UPA Government's colossal failure to stem Islamic terrorism,
as it bends over backwards to appease the Muslim community. In a replay of
the past, when the Congress was charged with having projected Sikhs as anti-national
and perpetrators of terrorism, the ruling coalition seems to have hatched
a dangerous plan to recast Hindus, the majority community, in the same mould.
It forgot that then the party paid a heavy price for its perfidy: Mrs Indira
Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. The law of cause and effect
is inexorable. One reaps as one sows.
At the very outset, criminal law was flouted
by the police when they could not produce the sadhvi in a magistrate's court
within 24 hours, in contravention of section 50-A of the Criminal Procedure
Code. This CrPC rule stipulates that a detainee or accused has to be produced
before a magistrate within 24 hours. Further, the sadhvi was forced to undergo
a lie-detector test without her consent having been recorded before a judicial
magistrate. It is a serious lapse, violating guidelines issued with regard
to the conduct of the polygraph test by National Human Rights Commission to
Chief Secretaries of States and Union territories on January 11, 2000.
The episode reeks of conspiracy. This inference
hinges on the fact that the basic tenet of justice - that an accused is assumed
to be innocent till proven guilty - has been mocked. The Maharashtra Police
arrested the sadhvi on October 11 and proclaimed that she was the mastermind
in the Malegaon blast. Eight others were also detained in the case. A sensation-crazy
media also went for the kill, with few questions being raised about the veracity
of the pronouncement. A Hindi news channel even speculated at length about
her love life or lack of it - running a programme salaciously titled 'Ek sadhvi
ki prem kahani'. The TV anchor's flight of imagination defied good taste.
Equally offensive was the tack taken by an
internet news portal in an interview with the Sadhvi's father. This excerpt,
leading up to the interview, should suffice to prove the point:
"Chandrapal Singh is a master at detecting
disease merely by feeling the pulse of his patients. It's a moot point if
he was able to detect what went wrong with his second daughter, Puranchetanand
Giri, better known as Sadhvi Pragya Thakur."
"Pragya's arrest is a turning point in the ongoing heated political debate
over terrorism, home-grown terrorists and related issues like political rights
and duties of the minority and majority communities in India. The stereotype-breaking
police allegation against Pragya and her associates is the first time Hindus
have been linked to terrorism in India."
The excerpts above are a perfect example of
defamation, without a shred of credible evidence being furnished. Drumming
up charges against someone is not tantamount to proving them.
An English daily in the capital ran a front
page-story, implying how the sadhvi could out-fox any lie detector test through
her skill in meditation! An excerpt: "But Pragya, sources said, has been
practising the meditation since years and can control her responses, making
it tough to believe if the answers under the polygraph test can be believed".
It would be edifying to know the identity
of the sources, especially because the writer is hazy about other facts, as
for instance, Pragya's religious status. The reporter refers to her as a "priestess"
while she is a renunciant. Every informed person knows the distinction between
the two. Such reporting is a pointer to how even before the investigation
into the case is complete and the trial underway, Sadhvi Pragya and her co-accused
have been sealed by the ATS and media. Yet, other blast cases, involving jihadis,
continue to drag on, with no resolution in sight.
