Held for 9/11-type plot,no case 4 years later

Four years,five months and 21 days later,Additional Sessions Judge Surinder S Rathi acquitted Kirmani,ripping apart the police case. All Kirmani has left are questions. My dream has already died,there is no future, he says. How will I begin again? Who will accept me in the aviation industry? Who will return me five years of my life?

The distortions began with the chargesheet filed in Kirmanis case. While before the media police alleged a 9/11-like plot,in its chargesheet,the Special Cell claimed a tip-off from a central intelligence agency that a Lashkar militant had set up base in Delhi and was funding terror through hawala,and that his brother was an Imran,a resident of Dwarka. And that Imran also collected and transferred terror funds.

The police claimed to have recovered around 1.5 kilogram of RDX,two automatic timers and 4.5 lakh rupees hawala money from Kirmani and his accomplice. While releasing Kirmani,the court ordered that the money be returned to him because his family had produced substantial proof that they had sold a piece of land in Sopore to help Kirmani buy a single-bedroom flat in Delhi.

The house was part of a dream that Kirmani had only then started believing was possible. Belonging to Magam in north Kashmirs Kupwara district,he had left his village at an early age and after Class V,joined Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Kupwara. Later he went to Chandigarh to finish his schooling.

I wanted to become an aeronautical engineer. It was my dream, he recalls. In January 2000,he joined the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial College of Aeronautics in Jaipur. It was a three-year course after which he took six-month training at Amritsar Flying Club.However,unable to find a job,he returned to Kashmir. Then,in 2005,he found a job with Star Aviation Academy in Delhi.

Things were falling into place,till that knock on the door of his Dwarka house on the afternoon of November 16,2006. When I opened the door,a group of men in civvies walked inside. They introduced themselves as officers of the Delhi Polices Special Cell. They placed their pistols on the table and told me they needed my help to solve a case, Kirmani recalls. I was scared and confused. But before I could say anything,they asked me to accompany them. They told me that they didnt want to create a scene and harm my reputation among the neighbours.

Kirmani had Rs 4.5 lakh with him in the apartment,and the policemen confiscated the money. Kirmani was taken to a shopping complex in Sector 6 of Dwarka. After some time,the police brought another Kashmiri. I didnt know him then. He was Ghulam Rasool Bafanda. I saw the policemen give a bag to him Bafanda and ask him to leave. But as he walked a few metres,they ran after him and caught him,shouting Pakdo,pakdo Catch him, he says. It was a drama to show that they had arrested him from the shopping complex.

A bag was then put over Kirmanis head,he says. They took me to some place. I heard cries of a man. It was Bafanda,they were torturing him. I didnt know what was going on. It was scary.

Bafanda,it later turned out,had actually been picked up from the exit gate of the domestic airport. Kirmani himself was kept in police custody for five days before being produced.

When the Special Cell told the media I was part of an LeT module and we were planning a 9/11-type attack in Delhi,I was shocked, Kirmani says. But then I understood their game plan. Every Kashmiri living in Delhi is under watch and the Special Cell officers had found my credentials fit to cook up a sensational story.

It was a nightmare for both him and his family. I realised that my lawyer too is working against me. So I decided to argue the case myself. Soon,he adds,the truth emerged. They Special Cell couldnt manage to hide their lies.

The case and what the court said:

The Special Cell claimed that on 16.11.2006,a specific information was received at 3:30 pm from a secret informer saying Imran would be coming to Shopping Complex,Sector 6,Dwarka and will hand over a consignment of funds for the purpose of terrorism to one Ghulam Rasool at 6:30 pm.

Dismissing the callous and inferior quality of investigation,the Additional Sessions Judge said even though it is claimed that secret input was received from Central Intelligence Agency in October 2006,this was never put in writing. The situation is further aggravated because there is no consensus amongst the witnesses on as to who received the information. As per SI R S Sherawat,it was he who received the secret information. As per SI Ramesh Lamba,he received the secret information. According to SI Ravinder Tyagi,he already had information in this regard. Most importantly as per ACP S K Yadav,it was he who received the information.

The judgment pointed out that the FSL report contradicted the description of the RDX allegedly seized from Kirmani. In fact,it negated the substance even being an explosive. Moreover,there was nothing in the records about the arms allegedly seized from Kirmani and Bafanda.

In his deposition,Head Constable Manoj stated that the ruqqa which was handed over to him from the spot consisted of only two pages,but ruqqa which is appended with chargesheet8230; is found to be containing seven pages. This smacks of antedating amp; fudging of record and documents, the judgment said.

The order also asked why a public witness was not arranged to join the raid.

Questioning the post-arrest investigations,the judgment asked that if the intelligence input was that Imran had set up a base at Dwarka,why absolutely no attempt whatsoever was made to ascertain or visit his house. It is quite improbable that when police claim to have arrested two terrorists who are said to be member of LeT,no raid is conducted at their claimed Delhi hideout8230; No attempt was made to verify his Kirmanis old Delhi address or his conduct with his aviation employer.

There is nothing on record to show that accused Imran and Ghulam were acquaintances8230; prior to their arrest. Also there is nothing on record to show that accused Imran is brother of accused Altaf,who has not been chargesheeted in the matter, the judgment said.

Kirmani is happy at having been proved innocent and being out of custody,but fears,life itself is a big jail now.

After such injustice,the government didnt even say sorry,he adds. And when I was released,there was no media,no cameras waiting to tell the world that I was innocent. It wasnt a story.