Convict in the German Bakery blast is falsely implicated by the ATS
Mumbai: Himayat Baig (32), the convict in the German Bakery blast Pune has been framed by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad revealed the ‘Gulail’. Ashish Khetan, editor of Gulail conducted a press conference in Mumbai on Friday and screened the 30 minutes footage of his 10 hour long video string operation that he conducted on the prosecution witnesses in the case.
"ATS forced the witnesses to give the false testimonies against Himayat Baig in the court and the ATS is in the business of framing innocent Muslims as terrorists”said Khetan. The witnesses in the case were Baig’s close acquaintances or friends. But in a strange twist of fate, were forced to condemn one of their own. The ATS exploited their weak social and economic status and their insecurities of coming from the Muslim minority to build a fabricated case against Baig revealed the sting operation.
While responding to media’s questions Khetan said that the Maharashtra ATS is running a deliberate, cynical programme of denigrating the Muslim youth creating in its wake an army of disaffected youth. Baig is not alone who is languishing in prison for a crime he did not commit; those who testified against him are also in prison, this prison has no walls, no chains, but there is no escaping.
On April 18 2013 a Pune trial court pronounced Himayat Baig guilty of the German Bakery bomb blast case on the following three grounds:
1. That RDX was recovered from a bag kept by Baig at his place of accommodation.
2. That Baig had a jihadi mindset and in his conversations with his friends he often subscribed to the ideology of terrorism.
3. That on the day of the blast Baig was in Pune and was seen with Ahmed Siddibapa Zarar alias Yasin Bhatkal near the German bakery.
However, in the sting operation prosecution witness Abdul Sayyed Rahim said that the RDX was planted later on. The sting operation shows how the prosecutions witnesses gave the false testimonies due to pressure from the ATS personnel.
Sayed Abdul Rahim, Shaikh Rehan, Mohammed Ansari, Shaikh Gaus, Shaikh Ateeq Nazir, all five main witnesses of prosecution upon whose testimony Baig has been sentenced to death the Court have expressed in the footage that they were forced by the ATS officers namely, DIG Latkar, Sudhakar Reddy,Milind Gayakwad,Sanjay Latkar, ACP Vinod Satav.
According to Shaikh Ateeq Nazir, Baig was present in Aurangabad on the day of the blast. But he was repeatedly tutored and coerced by the ATS to say otherwise. But when he refused to toe the line, his deposition was cut short and the prosecution lawyer allegedly told him to scoot off.
Two of Baig’s closest friends—Rehan Sheikh and Mohammad Ansari—told the court that Baig subscribed to the ideology of terror. But in the video they said they were forced by the ATS into lying before the court. Rehan Shaikh says in the footage that he was tortured with the electric shocks to repeat the words tutored by the ATS in the Court.
In April 2010, Baig’s friend, Shaikh Gaus, started a coaching centre in Udgir for poor Muslim children called‘Al-Saba coaching Classes’where Gaus hired Baig as a tutor for 1500 rupess per month. “All we wanted to do was to improve the future prospects of poor Muslim children. The madarsa education is creating a large army of unemployable youth. We wanted them to learn Mathematics, English and Science so they at least have some chance of employment”says Shaikh Gaus.
All the witnesses are willing to speak truth in the court but needs protection. However, Maharshtra, Home Minister RR Patil recently made a grand pronouncement that “Baig had been convicted through a due process of law and the State didn’t see any need for reinvestigation.” Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had also ruled out the re-investigation.
Ashish Khetan intends to file a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court on Monday. On February 13, 2010, a powerful bomb exploded in the Pune’s German Bakery that took life of 17 people.
