PUNE, 27 June 2007 — While Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (TADA) court judge P.D. Kode is concluding the sentencing of 123 people accused in the 1993 serial Mumbai blasts, the situation is different for one Muslim family, which was falsely arrested, detained, tortured and sexually humiliated in relation to the bombings.
On April 13, 1993 — a day after the bombings — 50 police officers raided the home of Iqbal Haspatel, 54, of the village of Valvatti in Raigad District. The team was led by the then Raigad District Police Superintendent Tukaram Bhal, his deputy Chandrashekar Daithankar (now deputy commissioner of police in Pune), and police inspector Kamlakar.
The Haspatels were accused of helping notorious Mumbai gangster Dawood Ibrahim by storing missiles for terrorism.
Waqar Konkani, a retired government official in the town of Mahad, said Muslims have always been used as vote banks and only remembered by secular parties during elections. He added that none of the secular parties raised their voices in support of the innocent family.
While justice is swiftly being dispensed by the TADA court, Iqbal Haspatel’s criminal complaint against police officers is still pending at the magistrate’s court in Alibaug town. “We want justice without any further delay. We don’t need the 500,000 rupees compensation awarded by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). It’s a shame that the police officials who were suspended are back at work, and worst that instead of punishment they have all been promoted,” said the Haspatel family.
“Our crime was only that my two years old daughter Zareen had dug out a piece of metal from a lakebed near her house, which she thought was a toy, but was only a bobbin used in textile mills. It was enough to put us through 14 days of horror. Policemen screamed that we were traitors and Dawood’s people, and that we had stored missiles in our house, which were meant to kill Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray,” said Iqbal.
The next few hours were terrifying. Policemen smashed a glass showcase and picked up a gas lighter asking if it was some kind of a detonator. They destroyed a radio saying it was a wireless set to communicate with terrorists and dug the floor looking for explosives, said Zubeida, Iqbal’s wife. After the raid, police imprisoned Iqbal, Zubeida and their two-year-old daughter Zareen.
Iqbal’s elder son Mubin, who had gone to a cousin’s house to inform them that he had received his passport and was set to leave for Bahrain to work, was picked up on returning home. The younger son, Naeem, a class IX student, was also picked up by police and later released. Iqbal and his son were then detained for 14 days under anti-terror laws.
In custody, the family was routinely tortured and assaulted for three hours each night. Zubeida would be taken to a nearby lake, made to take a dip and then kicked by police. She was also prevented from breast-feeding her daughter unless she bribed police.
Mubin was tortured the most. Policemen would place an iron bar on his legs and get officers to stand on it. He was hanged from a ceiling fan and given electric shocks on his private parts. Iqbal said officers humiliated them the most when the father and son would be forced to strip naked in front of Zubeida and Zareen.
Police officers would drink alcohol and verbally abuse them. After a few days, officers discovered that the “missile” was in fact a bobbin and so released Zubeida and Zareen, while Iqbal and Mubin were kept in custody until the end of their police remand period. Even after discovering that the “missile” was only a bobbin, police continued to beat the two, said Mubin. Prior to release, the two were made to sign a document saying they were not tortured.
Mubin suffered epileptic fits in the past but had been cured for over 10 years. Since his arrest, Mubin has been suffering fits again. “You have to stop saying Allah. Or you will have to go back to Pakistan,” was the most common utterance heard from policemen, he said.
Iqbal’s story is not unusual. As part of investigations into the 1993 bomb blasts, scores of Muslims from Mumbai and other areas were illegally detained, brutally tortured and humiliated.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in its judgment stated: “Mr. A.R Antulay, Member of Parliament (MP) filed a petition on Sept. 12, 1994 before the Commission highlighting the case of the Haspatel family... On consideration of the matter, the Commission noted from the report of the state government that departmental action had been ordered against the police officials involved in the matter. The commission accordingly recommended that, keeping in view the nature of findings in the departmental proceedings, appropriate prosecution should be launched.”
The judgment continued: “The matter was again considered by the Commission on Jan. 17, 2000. The Commission observed that from the conclusions reached and the findings recorded by the State CID, it was evident that Mr. Iqbal Ismail Haspatel, his wife, two sons, a daughter and a daughter-in-law, i.e. in all six members of that family, were not only humiliated and harassed but also unlawfully tortured. Some of them were subjected to illegal arrest. All these persons were subjected to several indignities wholly inconsistent with norms of decency. It was also noted that allegations had been made to the effect that valuable property estimated at Rs.187,000, owned by the victims of the incident, had also been taken away or destroyed by the police officials; this required further verification. The Commission directed the government of Maharashtra to pay an amount of Rs.500,000 as compensation by way of ‘immediate interim relief’ to Mr. Iqbal Ismail Haspatel and his family members. The government of Maharashtra has complied with the Commission’s recommendations on the payment of compensation of Rs.500,000 to the victims.”
Renowned journalist and columnist Tavleen Singh had described the police action as “police savageness at its worst.” In an article, Singh wrote, “There are a few stories that more horrifyingly illustrate the savageness and extreme incompetence of the Indian police than the story of Iqbal Ismail Haspatel and his family. The facts are so bizarre as to be almost incredible. Even when you hear it from the victims, as I did last week in their remote Maharashtrian village, it seems impossible that policemen who tortured, sexually humiliated and violated an entire family simply because they could not tell the difference between a bobbin and a rocket launcher can remain unpunished after the incident.”
Singh had concluded, “If Mr. L.K. Advani is serious about containing terrorism he needs to order a full inquiry into the Haspatel case and ensure that the guilty are punished not just for torture but also for incompetence. And, that the compensation due to the Haspatel family is paid expeditiously. It is the very least that needs to be done.” After their release, the media got wind of the Haspatels’ story. Bhal, Daithankar and Patil were suspended. A criminal complaint filed by the family was dismissed on the grounds that the state government had not given any sanction for the prosecution of the police officers.
A senior police officer, speaking to Arab News on condition of anonymity, said that the state government is wrong in easily letting off guilty police officials. As a matter of justice, guilty police officers should have been arrested, prosecuted and put behind bars. Instead, the government reinstated them and rewarded them with promotions. It’s a national shame, he added.
Meanwhile, in 1993, a parallel CID inquiry that had been independently set up found evidence against the police. Former Chief Minister, A.R. Antulay had approached the NHRC on the basis of the CID investigation report submitted in April 1994.
Iqbal said that divine help came through Maruti Shanker Maheshgauri, the high-profile Deputy Inspector General of Police, CID, who conducted an inquiry into the case. Following Maheshgauri’s report the Haspatels got relief and were awarded compensation.
Speaking to Arab News, Maheshgauri who recently retired as the joint commissioner of police, Pune, said, “It is true that the Haspatel family was subjected to inhuman and indecent humiliation and torture. The police officials were totally guilty. The sexual humiliation by the police officials were beyond all norms of humanity.”
He added, “I verified every single detail in the case very minutely, and came to an impartial and just conclusion that the Haspatel family was indeed innocent and shamelessly treated by the police. All truthful and honest details found during my investigations, were submitted in my report to the state government which was forwarded to the NHRC.”
