The Hindu : `Press, police suppressed information in Dec. 13 case'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 11, 2002

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National

`Press, police suppressed information in Dec. 13 case'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI OCT. 10. The press and the police `connived' to suppress information that could have given the investigation into the December 13 attack on Parliament a different complexion, a special court was told today.

An interview of the main accused, Mohammed Afzal, by the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak was edited "at the request of the ACP, Rajbir Singh,'' to exclude the section in which Mr. Afzal stated that another of the accused, S.A.R. Geelani, had nothing to do with the attack and had no knowledge of it.

In the written confessional statement to the police, which Mr. Afzal denies making, he is supposed to have said that Mr. Geelani, a University of Delhi lecturer, was present at the meeting where the attack was planned.

The video-taped interview was played in the court today and showed Mr. Afzal categorically stating that Mr. Geelani was "a professor ... I have never shared any of this information with him.'' He said in the interview that on one occasion, Mr. Geelani had said to him "you are up to something.'' "To stop him from asking questions, I told him that there were two Pakistanis staying with me who were trying to go to the UAE.''

The Aaj Tak correspondent, Shams Tahir Khan, giving evidence in court said that the ACP, who was present during the interview, had shouted at Mr. Afzal, saying he had instructed him not to say anything about Mr. Geelani. He also confirmed that other journalists, from NDTV/StarNews and Zee News, were present at the time. Mr. Khan then added: "Mr. Rajbir had requested that I should remove the lines stated by Mr. Afzal about Geelani ... So, when this interview was telecast on December 20 at 5 p.m. that line was removed.'' The complete version was telecast on a programme `100 days after December 13.'

Mr. Khan told The Hindu that his decision to edit out Mr. Afzal's comment about Mr. Geelani was made "because we are dependent on the police for information... Mr. Rajbir Singh is a very good source in the Delhi police's Special Cell.'' He added that he had not realised what impact his decision would have.

The court also heard the evidence of Ms. Qurut-ul-Ain Arifa, wife of Mr. Geelani. She described how she and her two children aged 10 and 5 were taken from their home in Delhi by plainclothes policemen on December 14 and held for two days in Lodhi Colony Police Station here and at a BSF camp at Bhalsawa.

She said they were repeatedly threatened with death and disappearance. Mr. Geelani was regularly paraded in front of them, bearing injury marks and threatenedthat if he did not make the statement which the police wanted him to, his family members would be killed. Ms. Arifa said that on December 16, the police forced Mr. Geelani to "sign on 15-16 blank sheets of paper'' in front of her.

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