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Journalism of Courage
HYDERABAD, Aug 15: Even three years after the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (prevention) Act (TADA) was repealed, the fate of 200 persons facing charges under the old law in Andhra Pradesh remains clueless.
A majority of the 200 accused had obtained bail after legal battles but about 40 were still under detention in different jails.
Andhra Pradesh is one of the few states where a large number of cases were registered under TADA ever since it came into being in 1987. As many as 13,500 persons, most of them Naxalites or sympathisers of Marxist-Leninist groups, were booked under the Act on different charges ranging from landmine blasts to burning of buses.
Of course, most of them were discharged by courts. “Misuse of TADA was so blatant that an Adilabad district sessions judge discharged as many as 110 persons in a single case,” said M Shankar, an advocate who argued the case five years ago.
The same is the case with Khaja Moinuddin of Bhongir in Nalgonda district, who was suspended from servicein the Revenue department seven years ago on the charge that he abetted the burning of a telephone exchange at Motkur by some Naxalites.
“It has been a harrowing experience for me. I suffered the worst in my life as I had to cough up Rs 30,000 for advocate fees and other expenses,” he said. The head of a four-member family, Khaja had to run from pillar to post before he was discharged last October.
K Rajaiah, a surrendered militant who already spent four and a half years’ imprisonment, is currently in Musheerabad jail, under TADA charges. His counsel R Mahadevan alleged that his client had been cheated by the police. “In fact, he (Rajaiah) was granted bail two years ago but jumped it under some compulsions. When he surrendered before the Nizamadabad SP four months ago, Rajaiah was offered rehabilitation like other surrendered Naxalites. Ultimately, the police showed it as an arrest and he is back in the prison,” Mahadevan explained.
Of the 820 persons detained under TADA in the twin cities, most ofthem for their alleged role in the communal riots in 1990 and 1991, none has been convicted so far, while the government itself withdrew cases against 26 in 1996.
Admitting that TADA provisions were misused by the police, a former bar council chairman, who preferred anonymity, said, “Probably the police wanted to use TADA as a deterrent as most of the accused were bound to undergo a pre-trial conviction."
Deploring the condition of those who were still facing TADA charges, senior advocate and PUCL president KG Kannabiran said, “The continuation of TADA cases is like a tail wagging in a dead dog”. Moreover, he felt that prosecuting them under the normal law would have been simpler and faster.
