India Matters: Trial by Terror

Two months ago, in a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court acquitted 11 people accused of masterminding the twin blasts in Surat. The blast in one of Varchha's schools killed one girl while the blast at the Surat Railway Station left several injured. TADA provisions were applied to their cases and confessional statements were extracted from all 11 accused by the police, allegedly by use of force.

One of the accused was former Congress Minister, Mohammad Surti who painfully recalls his jail term.

"I was tortured from the moment I was arrested. For the first three years I was kept in a room where the windows were covered with black cloth so that no one could see me. Economically, my family was ruined," he said.

Mushtaq Patel, 52, was the first to be arrested in the railway station blast case. He believes that the police arrested him to impress their new bosses in Gandhinagar. Mushtaq wants to return to his old days when he had Hindu friends who trusted him.

"I was a social worker and participated in all their festivals including Ganesh Chaturthi and Navratri. During the riots, I had set up relief camps to help both communities. The police ruined my image. How many people can I go to and tell that I'm innocent?" he said.

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After being released from jail, he is now being investigated in a 24-year-old assault case.

TADA was misused to trap innocent people and the injustice wasn't merely the jail terms that the accused faced but the economic and social strangulation that their families suffered, year after year.

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On September 24, 2002, six months after the Gujarat riots, the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar was attacked in which 33 people were killed and over 80 injured. In 2003, six local Muslims were arrested for the strike under the Prevention of Terrorist Activities (POTA). Some were also alleged to be linked to Pakistan intelligence agency ISI. Mohammed Salim Shaikh, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Salim was arrested a few days before returning to Saudi Arabia where he had been working as a tailor for 13 years. He says, "We collected Rs 13,000  for distributing food grains in the relief camps. The police said, it was for funding the Akshardham attack. I don't think that even 13 years ago, it was possible to carry out this kind of operation with such less money."

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His only regret is that he could not give his children a good education and make them a part of the Indian mainstream. Salim says that although his children are not angry with life, they lost their innocence and grew up much too fast.

Mufti Abdul Qayum Mansuri , who was given the death penalty for his role in the attack is alleged to have written the letters found in the pockets of the slain terrorists. Mansuri says his arrest was made to send out a message to the community that the police with the backing of the state Government could destroy anybody it wanted.

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"I was tortured. They made me write continuously for 3-4 nights and then every morning an Urdu handwriting expert would check it. He was also their man, J.J Patel. When my lawyer asked if he was qualified in Urdu, it turned out he wasn't," says Mansuri, recalling his jail term.

The acquitted want to put it all behind and start a new life but the families of the people killed in the Akshardham strike are still waiting for closure. In the verdict, the Supreme Court slammed the Gujarat police and Government for applying the Prevention of Terrorist Activities (POTA) Act without adequate evidence.