ATS forced us to testify against Baig: GB blast witnesses

Five prosecution witnesses have allegedly told a website that they were forced and threatened to testify against Himayat Baig, a convict in the German Bakery (GB) blast case.

Prosecution witness no. 73, Abdul Samad Indori, along with four other prosecution witnesses, in a sting interview to Gulail, the website, said that they were compelled to testify against Baig by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).

Addressing a press conference, Ashish Khetan, editor of Gulail, showed an half-an-hour long video, apparently a sting operation, in which Indori, Sheikh Rehan (prosecution witness no. 94), Mohammed Ansari (no. 97), Ateeq Sheikh Nazir (no. 96) and Gaus Sheikh (no. 92) said that they were told that if they failed to testify, they would either be implicated in terror cases or face dire consequences.

“Since the day I have testified against him, I have not been able to sleep at night and sometimes he (Baig) comes in my dreams,” Indori said in the video.

However, according to ATS sources, this sting operation was being carried out at the behest of some people who want to show the force in bad light. “Out of the five witnesses, statements of two were recorded in front of two different magistrates under section 164 of CrPC. One witness turned hostile in the court; the fourth one did not testify and we found bogus IDs and passports on Baig’s name from the fifth (Gaus). Where is the question of pressuring them?”

The officer informed that the court proceedings have been going on for two years and questioned why the video is being brought up now?

The sting interview was conducted around 10 days back. While some witnesses said that their relatives were kidnapped, others said they were threatened to be arrested if they did not adhere to the ATS’s demands. Khetan said that he has sent the CD of the interview to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. “It is for him to decide whether this state is ruled by law or by some ATS officials,” he added.

Most importantly, Ateeq has in the interview said that Baig was with him in Aurangabad on the day the incident took place in Pune.
Khetan said that Baig was convicted on three grounds. First, RDX was found from his house. Second, he has a jehadi mindset and would often talk to his friends about doing something against the injustice done to Muslims by demolishing Babri Masjid and the Gujarat riots. And third, on the day of the blasts, Baig was spotted with Yasin Bhatkal.

“The sting operation negates all these three theories, as according to his friends, Baig was educating Muslim children and he was of the view that Madrassas do not provide adequate knowledge to these kids and left them unemployed. Also, the witnesses have denied that he was of jehadi mentality and that any RDX was ever found in his house. The witnesses were made to sign on statements without it being read out to them,” Khetan added.