TORTURED IN KASHMIR , JAILED IN KOLKATA Even after serving 10 years in jail, Farhat was given life imprisonment on charges his family denies For the past 10 years, 30- year- old Sheikh Farhat is confined in cell number13 of the Alipore Jail in Kolkatta, West Bengal, about 2300 kms away from his home on Iqbalabad Bund Road in Bemina, Srinagar. His 65- year- old mother Hajra Begum has vivid memories of the night she saw her son for the last time. Holding the picture of her son, Hajra breaks down, kissing and hugging it. “ Why did I let him go?” she laments. “ I haven’t seen him in these ten years.” She recalls Kolkata police telling her at the time of his arrest: ‘ Maji app ka bayta nirdoosh hai, bus ek mahinay kay baed Kashmir may wapas hoga ( Mother, your son is innocent. He will be back in one month). But Farhat hasn’t returned home since that night. For over a decade now, Hajra is waiting to see her son again. On the evening of December 16, 2003, at around 9.30 pm there was a knock at their door. Hajra’s elder son peeped through the window. As we saw the police search party, which was quite common those days, she says, we opened the door. “ My husband who worked in education department was posted in Jammu those days,” Hajra says. “ The policemen from the Parimpora police station enquired about my sons.” Farhat was sleeping in his room on the second floor. “ I along with the policemen went to his room to wake him up,” she recalls. Frahat woke up, horrified by the harsh voices of policemen. “ He was so terrified that he hugged me tightly,” remembers Hajra. “ Mama, ye kya daleel ?” he asked her. ( Mother, what’s the matter?) She says none of the policemen gave any reason for barging into their house at night. “ They took my son and I pleaded and begged in front of them but all in vain,” she says. “ They assured me that he will be released after some questioning. Then I asked my elder son Ishrat to go with him,” she says, fighting back tears. After the police arrested Farhat, the family says he was interrogated in the police station Parimpora. His helpless elder brother was kept in the second floor. “ My brother was whimpering and screaming as he was physically tortured. It was a mental torture for me,” says Ishrat. “ That day I cried like a child.” “ Bayooo, bayooo,” he screamed and then became unconscious. “ Some policemen tried to pacify me,” he recalls, “ others were babbling, ‘ Bhai hai, dard to hogahi’.” The sight of his handcuffed and terrified brother still haunts Ishrat who is always worried and depressed about the plight of his younger brother in jail. “ In the morning my brother was taken to Cargo,” he says. “ He was handcuffed and he had bruises all over his face. He was not able to walk as one of his legs was broken.” Before his arrest that year, Sheikh Farhat had passed his 11 th standard exams and had to enroll in 12th standard. He was a good athlete. Dozens of his sports achievement certificates still lie in his wardrobe. “ He wanted to pursue MBA in future as he had a dream and passion to become a great business entrepreneur,” says Ishrat. In order to support his family and gain experience in business, he went to Kolkata and worked there as a salesman in a Kashmiri handicrafts shop. He also took along his friend, Sheikh Imran, who worked with him as a salesman in the same shop. On July 15 this year, having already spent 10 years in jail, the news about the life sentence given to their son and a fine of two lakhs has shaken this family. “ We would have no regrets had he been found involved anywhere. He was innocent and police coerced him by interrogating him but he still denies any involvement,” says Ishrat. “ Nothing was found in his possession, how can they legitimize his arrest?” The family says Farhat and his friend had come back to Kashmir months before the truck with Meghalaya number plate carrying 25,485 bullets was seized. While the police charged them for smuggling ammunition and the truck was seized on September according to the charge sheet produced by the Kolkata police, his family refutes the claim, saying that their son and his friend came back from Kolkata in June/ July that year as they couldn’t bear the soaring heat in Kolkata. The family alleges that the witness accounts of Kolkata police and charge sheet produced before the court are replete with ambiguity. “ The police there claimed to have the arrested both of them on 26 December 2003 at Sheri Kashmir cricket stadium, while Farhat was arrested from home, Bemina Srinagar and Imran from a coaching centre at Lal Chowk on 16 December 2003,” says Ishrat. Moreover, the background report submitted by the JK police shows that there’s nothing adverse against Farhat in any police station in Kashmir, the family says. Farhat’s family had to suffer huge losses in the past ten years of his confinement in Kolkata. They had to sell three Kanals of their land in Bemina as the lawyers in Kolkata demanded hefty amounts from them for fighting the case of their son. “ We had to sell our land and give up all our retirement savings to fight for our son,” says Hajra. “ Even we were duped by some lawyers in Kolkata who took hefty amount of money from us.” Father of Sheikh Farhat, Sheikh Ghulam Nabi, a retired government employee, is presently in Kolkata to appeal against the recent verdict by the court ruled against his son. In order to save money to fight his son’s case, he often remains hungry and sleeps in mosques and railway stations. “ My uncles had to lend money to him before he went to Kolkata as he had already sold everything and spend every single penny to fight for his son’s release,” says his nephew, Sheikh Abdhul Hamid. The family says the Kolkata court delayed their trails. The recent verdict came as a shocker for the family. It awarded life sentences for Farhat and his friend Imran with effect from 16- 09.2013, neglecting 10 years of imprisonment already served by both of them. Hajra Begum Filed an RTI on 11- 09- 2013 to seek information if CID J& K had conducted any investigation with regard to his jailed son. The report had to be submitted within 48 hours as per J& K RTI Act 2009, but the information is yet to be submitted. RTI activists says under section 7( 1) of J& K RTI Act 2009, the information should have been given within 48 hours as this is a matter of life and liberty of a person. According to the family the eyewitness report submitted against Farhat and his friend Imran has many flaws. The family claims they have ample proof to prove the innocence of their son. “ We even submitted the proof before Wajahat Habibullah, the chairperson of National Commission for Minorities, but nothing happened,” says Ishrat. “ My brother continues to languish in jail.” CONFINEMENT BILAL BHAT Izhar Wani Intern in GK Farhat’s family had to suffer huge losses in the past ten years of his confinement in Kolkata. They had to sell three Kanals of their land in Bemina as the lawyers in Kolkata demanded hefty amounts from them for fighting the case of their son. “ We had to sell our land and give up all our retirement savings to fight for our son,” says hajira.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 02:53:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015