Tags:
Journalism of Courage
US National Ken Haywood felt that he was being “needlessly harassed” by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in connection with the probe into the terror email sent before the Ahmedabad blasts and fled the country as he thought the episode wouldn’t end anytime soon.
Haywood emailed a one-sentence reply on Tuesday evening in response to questions from The Indian Express on why he had fled the country. “Sorry, I am not involved, and have never really been, I know nothing more than you do,” he said.
American diplomatic sources as well as his lawyer told The Indian Express that they believed the ATS had no case against Haywood even as the authorities in Mumbai sought to blame their counterparts at Delhi airport for letting him pass through immigration despite a look-out notice, and board a flight to the US on the intervening night of August 16-17.
It seemed clear all along that Haywood’s WiFi Internet connection had been hacked to send the email minutes before the serial blasts in Ahmedabad and that he had no links with any terror group, sources said. “Yet they went after him and subjected him to all kinds of questioning and even conducted lie-detector tests,” one source said. “This could have gone on for years and he must have said enough was enough and decided to get on with his life.”
For the record, the US Embassy spokeswoman in Delhi, Elizabeth Fitzsimmons, said the embassy had no comment to offer as Haywood was a private American citizen. His lawyer, G S Hegde, said Haywood gave no indication of wanting to leave India when he last spoke to him on Friday. “But he was mentally very tired, seemed like he wanted to get away from it all in the sense that he wanted this ordeal to end, be home, relax,” added the lawyer.
While some reports have suggested that Haywood may have got the jitters after hearing about plans that the ATS wanted to subject him to narco-analysis tests, Hegde said he didn’t see that as a possibility. He said narco-analysis tests needed the consent of the person being subjected to the test unless the circumstances were exceptional and also if other tests like polygraphs showed falsehoods. In Haywood’s case the tests were negative and a decision to subject him to narco tests could have been challenged in court, he added.
Hegde, however, admitted that Haywood was upset about his religious background being probed and did not see how that could be linked to the terror email. “He was like, ‘either I sent the mail or I didn’t and they should take action based on that,” Hegde said. “My personal feeling is that he will come back. He was happy here and had nothing against India. But I think it will also depend on what the directors of his company decide since his case has got a lot of bad publicity for the company.”
While efforts to get comment from Haywood’s employers, Campbell White, proved futile both in Mumbai and at their Bangalore headquarters, ATS officials said they were still reeling from the shock of the “absurd” turn of events.
ATS Additional Commissioner of Police Parambir Singh denied that his department was aware of any diplomatic efforts to help Haywood flee the country. “We are still completely shocked. Such a thing could not and should not have happened. It is completely absurd that Haywood was not identified and detained at the airport,” Singh told reporters.
“The Centre is not answerable to the ATS and we have not been provided any information on how Haywood managed to leave. It is up to the immigration authorities in New Delhi to conduct a detailed probe in the whole matter. A look-out notice had been issued against Haywood on July 30 and it was very much in force on the night he left,” Singh said, adding the ATS had not kept a round-the-clock watch on Haywood as there were no restrictions on his movement within the country. (with inputs from Sagnik Chowdhury)
