Judge sees Bush shadow on Buddha

It's an Indian communist nightmare. Six days before demitting office last month, the chief judge of the special court hearing the sensationa...

It’s an Indian communist nightmare. Six days before demitting office last month, the chief judge of the special court hearing the sensational Aftab Ansari case equated Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s government in West Bengal with the George Bush administration, saying there was a shadow of Guantanamo Bay in the way the state treated its prisoners.

The judge accused the Left Front government of subverting the process of a fair trial. Worse was perhaps the comparison with Emergency days. The judge said: ‘‘Excluding accused Aftab Ansari from production before courts smells like the dreaded MISA re-enacted.’’

Judge Pyarilal Dutta had been hearing the cases of an attack on the American Center in Kolkata and the kidnapping of leather industrialist and Khadim owner, Partha Roy Burman. In both the cases, the main accused is Ansari.

In the context of excluding Aftab Ansari from being produced in court, the Judge noted: ‘‘I feel (an) ominous dark shadow of George W Bush’s dictum in keeping Al-Qaeda activists of Afghanistan in Guantanamo-Bay island (Cuba) in secluded concentration camp prison without production and trial before any court of law for more than two years in spite of worldwide condemnation from freedom-loving masses of the globe and human right activists.’’

	THE CASE SO FAR

	• The American Center was attacked on January 22, 2002, 5 cops were killed • Aftab Ansari was arrested in Dubai the next day and deported to India on February 9, 2002. He was traced in Dubai through a cellphone call he allegedly made • A special court was set up in September 2002 in the Presidency jail for the trial. The evidence is closed and the argument yet to begin • The trail is yet to begin in a kidnap case. Khadim allegedly paid Rs 3.75 crore to Aftab’s agent in Hyderabad as ransom for Burman’s release. The money was allegedly divided between Ansari and Asif Riza Kha, said to have had links to Al Qaeda

Stung by the observation of the court, the state government is planning to move the Calcutta High Court. ‘‘These observations are unfortunate. However, we will go for a revision,’’ state Law Minister Nishith Adhikari told The Sunday Express.

Apparently, what angered Dutta was the invocation of the Governor’s powers in issuing a Government Order by the Home (Political) department, under provisions of section 268 and subsection (1) CrPC to exclude Aftab Ansari from being produced before the POTA Review Committee in Delhi. Ansari is also wanted in POTA cases in Delhi and Gujarat.

Earlier, the Judge had granted permission to a petition from Aftab Ansari’s lawyer for his client’s personal appearance before a POTA Review Committee on January 20, 2005 in New Delhi. The government order, in effect, overruled this. The government order had also excluded Ansari from appearing in person before the special court in view of public interest and for fear of ‘‘public disturbance.’’

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Slamming the government order, the Judge said on January 25, 2005 that the government missive is ‘‘sketchy and antithetical.’’ In barring Ansari from appearing before the POTA Review Committee, the Judge saw a parallel to Qaeda activists in concentration camps and Emergency days.

He also doubted the ‘‘motive’’ of the government as being ‘‘questionable’’. Because the government cited chances of ‘‘public disturbance’’ as the ground for not producing Ansari. ‘‘The question of public disturbance is a fantasy created by administration to flout court’s order… Political manoeuvres have its own recipe which do not fit into the judicial methodology, be that dubbing somebody as terrorist at times… The dubbing of accused Aftab Ansari, a terrorist, is antithetical,’’ he said.

The case was adjourned sine die.

Public prosecutor Ashok Bakshi says his observations amounted to a ‘‘pre-judgement.’’ ‘‘He has gone overboard with his observations,’’ he says. DIG CID, D P Tarania, told The Sunday Express: ‘‘It was an unfortuante observation, which was totally uncalled for,’’ he said.

The defence lawyer is understandably elated. ‘‘The judge understood the reality of the situations and made the right observations,’’ says Shahid Imam, counsel for Aftab Ansari.