17 May 2003

FALSE POTA CASE AGAINST KASHMIRI JOURNALIST

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: Kashmiri journalist Ghulam Mohiuddin Bhatt, nabbed by Delhi Police on May 9 night with alleged Rs 6.5 lakhs "hawala" money, appears to be victim of yet another case fabricated by the Intelligence Bureau to establish his links with terrorist outfit Hizb ul Mujahideen which do not exist.

He was arrested under the Arms Act for allegedly possessing an unlicensed Chinese pistol but POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) was slapped on him early this week on the basis of an alleged fax of a Hizb commander recovered from his newspaper office last Sunday. He has not admitted any of the charges and affirmed that he has been framed up.

The fax document, Police claimed before Special POTA Judge S N Dhingra on Saturday, had directed Mohiuddin to collect Hawala money from Delhi for militants. Sources say the document may turn out to be forged as it cannot be signed by the Hizb commander who was already killed a few weeks ago.

MYSTERIOUS CHANGE OF INVESTIGATORS: The Delhi Police Special Cell's team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police L N Rao that had rushed to Srinagar to establish Mohiuddin's alleged links with Hizb, has been summarily removed from the case for an unexplained reason and the investigations are now being conducted by an entirely new team headed by another Special Cell's ACP Kushwaha.

((Rao had also headed the team that had framed The Kashmir Times' Delhi Bureau Chief Iftikhar Gilani under the Official Secrets Case, which the government had to ultimately withdraw after his seven months' incarnation in Tihar Jails.)

On Saturday, judge extended the police remand of Mohiuddin for eight days and permitted Police to take him to Srinagar to confront him with two persons to verify his statements about the mobile phone recovered from him and the controversial fax document recovered during raid on his news agency Kashmir Press Service (KPS) and sister publication Tameel-e-Irshad.

PROFILE MISMATCH: Though Police sought to stress before the Court that Mohiuddin was "closely associated with the terrorist outfit" of Hizb ul Mujahideen, sources said the Government is intrigued that his available profile prepared in the past by various agencies shows him to have association more with a government establishment than with the terrorists.

Sources said Mohiuddin would be taken to Srinagar on Monday where he would be confronted with Ghulam Nabi Var, a former TADA detainee, as Mohiuddin has claimed that Var had given him the mobile for use in Delhi and the same may have been used by others also. Police wants to verify whether some calls to Pakistan were made using the mobile phone by Mohiuddin or someone else.

The other person to be confronted with Mohiuddin is his newspaper's sub-editor Khursheed as Mohiuddin has reportedly told Police that the newspapers keep getting all sorts of fax messages from the militant outfits and they are not even shown to him but dealt by the sub-editors.

DUJ' CONCERN: Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ), the largest professional and trade union body, has urged the Government to ensure safety and security of Mohiuddin during his trip to Kashmir under the Police custody as he can be targeted by the militants accused of getting "Hawala" money through him.

DUJ also came forward to provide legal help to Mohiuddin as he was not represented by any lawyer so far but the need did not arise as a Srinagar lawyer, Zia Ul Khan, has rushed to Delhi and appeared on his behalf alongwith Advocate Riaz Mohd to oppose his further Police remand.

NO TORTURE: Advocate Zia was forthright in telling the POTA Court that he had gone to meet Mohiuddin in the custody of the Special Cell and he was quite impressed that Mohiuddin was not subjcted to third degree treatment.  He, however, pleaded that Delhi's temperature of 41 degree Celsius without a cooler or effective fan itself was a third degree treatment to a person coming from Srinagar.

He opposed the Police application for taking him to Srinagar as he said an investigation team that had gone to Srinagar last Saturday had already completed all investigations. He wanted Mohiuddin to be shifted to judicial custody.

Judge Dhingra rejected his plea for judicial remand, pointing out that the conditions in jail may be worse than Police custody and noted that the counsel had himself stated that the accused was not subjected to third degree treatment.

As regards the Police plea to take him to Srinagar for investigations, the judge said there could be no objection in Police "taking him to the cold weather of Srinagar from the hot weather of Delhi."

Advocate Zia also wanted some sets of clothes to Mohiuddin as he was wearing the same clothes in which he was nabbed nine days ago and the judge allowed him to do so in the Court room itself. The judge also directed Police, on the counsel's plea, to provide him with a copy of the F.I.R. (First information report).

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