“Jhooton ne jhooton se kaha sach bolo/ghar ke andar toh jhooton ki ek mandi hai/darwaze par likha hua hai sach bolo," Usman Khan, who lost his 23-year-old nephew to the 2008 Malegaon blasts, reacted to the judgment by quoting the famous verse by Rahat Indori.
“Wherever he goes, the Prime Minister talks about 'zero tolerance' to terror. Now let’s see if he means what he says. Will his party’s government appeal against these acquittals as they did against the 7/11 acquittals?” asked Aleem Faizee, founding editor of the Malegaon-based website Ummid.com.
There’s cynicism and anger in Malegaon over the 2008 blasts judgment.
One name is on everybody’s lips: that of Hemant Karkare. As the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief, Karkare led the investigations into the blasts till he was suddenly killed in the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai.
A History of One-Sided Arrests
Under Karkare, not only were Hindus arrested for a terrorist act for the first time, he even dared to arrest a saffron-robed sadhvi, one who had earlier been connected to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
The significance of this arrest can be understood in the context of those times. Until then, only Muslims would be arrested for all bomb blasts, including those that targeted Muslims.
Two of these took place in the power loom city of Malegaon, both on Islamic religious occasions.
The first blast in 2006 killed 31 Muslims on a night when Muslims converge in large numbers to pray. Almost 115 Muslims were picked up and finally nine were formally arrested by the Maharashtra ATS, then headed by KP Raghuvanshi. Malegaon’s Muslims, including the families of those who died, protested in vain for these men, stating they were not the culprits.
How Karkare’s Investigation Changed the Narrative
Hence when, after the 2008 blasts, Karkare arrested Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and followed it up with the even more sensational arrest of a serving army officer, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Malegaon’s Muslims felt validated.
Karkare’s investigations led to a chain of arrests across the country that pointed to Hindutva ideologues and activists being behind all blasts that had specifically targeted Muslims.
This resulted in the nine Muslims arrested for the 2006 Malegaon blasts getting bail and finally a discharge in 2016. When I met him last week, Dr Farogh Makhdoomi, one of those discharged, recalled the euphoric welcome they received in Malegaon when they were released on bail in 2011.
“And when we were discharged, posters with our photographs were plastered all over.”Dr Farogh Makhdoomi, one of the accused Muslims
For Makhdoomi, as well as his fellow accused, Karkare emerged as a saviour.
When the ATS chief was suddenly killed in the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai, Malegaon’s Muslims honoured him by naming the chowk where the 2008 blast took place after him.
Yet, he was ignored in the media coverage of the judgment.
Rohini Salian's Unheeded Warnings
So was another name that hasn’t been forgotten in Malegaon: Rohini Salian, the original public prosecutor in the case.
Her sensational disclosure in 2015, a year after the BJP took over at the Centre, was that the National Investigation Agency (NIA), handling the case since 2011, had asked her to “go soft” on the accused (later, in an affidavit, she named the officer responsible as Suhas Warke).
This was the first hint of what was to come: witness statements taken by Karkare’s team going “missing”; the NIA dropping the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, which meant confessions could no longer be valid evidence; Pragya and then Purohit getting bail.
A Campaign That Conveyed More Than Mere Words
In 2019, the BJP gave Pragya, who was still a terror accused, the Lok Sabha ticket from Bhopal to fight the Congress’ Digvijay Singh. Her nomination was a political statement: Singh had not only accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of spreading terror, but had also disclosed more than once that Karkare had, just hours before his killing, told him about threats he was receiving from Hindutva extremists.
Interestingly, early in her election campaign, Pragya had boasted that her “curses” had led to Karkare’s death.
Syed Nisar, a scrap dealer, whose 19-year-old son was killed in the blast, had intervened in the case, not only to oppose Pragya’s bail, but also her candidature as MP. The Jamiat Ulema had provided him a lawyer. Now hard of hearing and visibly frail, the 74-year-old told The Quint that he was willing to fight as long as it took.
Yet, no part of the chequered background, the unequal nature of the fight, with one of the accused becoming a ruling party MP out on bail while the case was still on, figured in the media coverage of the judgment. It was as though the acquittals had come at the end of one unbroken prosecution, with no about-turns.
A Verdict Laden with Doubt
The celebratory mood in BJP circles, and in TV channels, ignored another crucial aspect: the accused had not been declared innocent, but only given the benefit of the doubt.
The judgment spoke of “strong suspicion”, without the evidence needed to support it.
Purohit had indeed been a member of Abhinav Bharat, but there was no proof that RDX was found in his home. How could a serving army officer be a member of an avowed Hindutva organisation?
Whose Pain Gets Acknowledged?
As expected, Pragya Thakur’s alleged torture once again made headlines. But it needs recalling that the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, had sent the Intelligence Bureau chief and the National Security Advisor to then leader of the Opposition LK Advani , to convince him that no such torture had taken place.
“When we want to question a suspect and if he or she has any Hindutvawadi connections, we make sure once, twice, thrice, that we have enough reason and evidence to even question. Normally it is not like that. We are able to freely question anyone we suspect.”Hemant Karkare, ATS Chief, in an interview
The same government remained impervious at worst, or acted discreetly at best, when Muslim terror accused and their families alleged torture. Nur Ul Huda, Raees Rajabali and Dr Makhdoomi, all of them discharged for the 2006 Malegaon blasts, could narrate to The Quint 19 years later, not only the details of the torture they were allegedly subjected to by the Maharashtra ATS at its Kalachowkie office, but also the names of the officers who tortured them.
What Justice Looks Like to Those Left Behind
The judgment has left the blast victims despondent. As power loom worker Usman Khan, said, “God will punish them. What else can we say? Do we have a choice?”
The same belief, that final justice will be handed out by God, was voiced by Shaikh Ibrahim, who had just one daughter. The blast killed her husband, leaving the family without a breadwinner. Today, the 84-year-old Ibrahim and his wife are dependent on their grandson, a bus driver.
The Rs 2 lakh compensation ordered by the court will come in handy to the families of the six victims, who are among Malegaon’s poorest. The original Rs 5 lakh compensation is long over.
The overall approval of the verdict by the ruling party makes it clear it won’t be appealed. However, the Jamiat Ulema will appeal on behalf of the victims.
“Witnesses turned hostile, yet the NIA did not pursue perjury charges against them, despite requests from the victims. As an advocate who attended the trial daily, I believe the NIA could have performed better had it prioritised the concerns of the victims.”Shahid Nadeem, Jamiat Ulema lawyer
A Divided Town
The fight however, will be confined to the courts. No Muslim politician in Malegaon wants to protest on the streets. The community is already facing an onslaught from the state government on various fronts: demolitions of Muslim homes around Malegaon Fort; notices to mosques asking for property documents; and an ongoing inquiry into the issuance of fake birth certificates for which four Muslim women have already been arrested.
Nor can the community rely on their fellow Hindu citizens. Both communities inhabit separate worlds on either side of the Mausam river, with little social interaction.
Even children go to separate schools. The ongoing struggle to get justice will have to be once again fought by the community alone.
(Jyoti Punwani is a Mumbai-based journalist. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)