A report by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Asoke Basak on the embarrassing turnaround made by the Mumbai police and state government in the Mohammed Afroz trial has accused Commissioner of Police M.N. Singh and former joint commissioner of police (crime) Bhujangrao Mohite of acting in haste in charging the alleged al Qaeda terrorist under POTO.In his report, Basak says the decision to book Afroz under POTO was taken in a hurry, as was the decision to drop the charges. ‘‘I have received the report. I have forwarded it to CM Vilasrao Deshmukh for appropriate action,’’ Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said. The police first charged Afroz with sedition under POTO on March 1, but later urged the court to drop the charges, ironically the same day as Parliament gave its assent to the terrorism Bill. The turnaround was surprising as the police had tom-tommed the case as the first arrest under POTO in the state. It was only after two police teams were dispatched abroad — one to the UK and the other to the US to collect evidence — that they realised they had none to make the charges stick. The ‘‘haste’’ was embarrassing especially for Bhujbal, whose party, the NCP, had campaigned vigorously for POTO in Parliament. The NCP had maintained that the legislation was absolutely necessary to arrest terrorist activities in the state and country.After police had turned around and urged the court to drop the charges, an irate Bhujbal, on March 28, had instructed Basak to investigate the circumstances under which POTO had been applied in the first place.
