Click to play videoThere is a public storm brewing over the alleged links between filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul Bhatt and terror suspect David Headley alias Dawood Gilani. But under the guise of fighting terror, is our society becoming a paranoid lynch mob?
After more evidence has emerged that US citizens David Headley and Tahawwur Husssain Rana were involved in the 26/11 terror strikes in Mumbai, the National Investigation Agency has asked Rahul Bhatt not to leave Mumbai. Rahul is a key lead in the investigation against Headley and Rana but the police have clearly stated that there is no evidence to disprove that Rahul did not know that Headley was a jihadi.
Meanwhile, the Home Ministry believes that David Headley planned to strike at India's nuclear installations. They also believe Headley and Rana were in Pakistan on 26/11. India has now approached Canada for more information on Rana, a Canadian national and an NIA team is also set to go to Canada.
The question that was being asked on CNN-IBN's Face The Nation was: Headley case: Was it correct to mention names during the investigation?
To try and answer the question on the panel of experts were: filmmaker and Rahul Bhatt’s father, Mahesh Bhatt; filmmaker and Rahul Bhatt’s sister, Pooja Bhatt; social scientist Shiv Visvanathan; and senior lawyer Harish Salve.
At the start of the show, 47 per cent of those who voted in said yes, it was correct to mention names during investigation while 53 per cent disagreed.
Nothing But The Truth
Mahesh Bhatt kickstarted the debate by trying to clarify the controversy saying, “Let's just get one thing clear. It was Rahul and his friend Vilas who walked into the office of the Head of Crime in the Mumbai Police department and said that may be David Headley was the same person that they ran into two years ago and that changed the course of their investigation. The authorities in Delhi were clueless till then.”
“The investigating agency selectively leaked out the information to suit their own designs. I am outraged, I am hurt, betrayed by the authorities who are actually supposed to handle this case with great sensitivity,” he said.
He added that even though the police are repeatedly saying that Rahul Bhatt is not involved in the case, the media was downplaying that part of the police statement.
“The media is becoming a lying machine to suite various interests of their own. It (media) is just cooking up stories which serve its own interests. It is the duty of the investigative agencies to come clean and tell the truth in a shriller voice that can be heard,” said Bhatt.
Some commentators felt that since utmost secrecy was the need of the hour in investigative procedures, the police and concerned authorities have committed a gross violation of codes by leaking out Rahul Bhatt's name.
To this, Harish Salve said that it was unfortunate that the authorities had leaked a name but added that the trouble was that they did it every time.
“We cannot secure trial by conviction, we have trial by embarrassment. This has become the typical way of behaving for the Indian police,” he stated.
When faced with the fact that the Home Secretary was saying that nobody can get a clean chit in this particular investigation, Salve asked: “Has the Home Secretary investigated as to who told the media that Rahul was under inquiry? Why should any names come out at this stage?”
Under Pressure
Observers feel that it is necessary to ensure that such a precedent is not repeated and therefore by publicising such precedents others can be more vigilant. To this Shiv Visvanathan said that suspicion was a form of terror and that when the veil of suspicion spread to innocent people, it did not serve the grounds of justice.
“It's time community and civil society groups stand up for families which are under unfair suspicion,” emphasised Visvanathan.
Bhatt piped in at this point saying that he did not expect his son to get special treatment.
Pooja Bhatt stepped into the debate asking why weren't people asking Pritish Nandy - the owner of Moksh, the gym where Rahul works as a trainer - as to why David Headley joined Moksh and why didn't the form have Headley's signature and photograph till date?
“Most of the media have used the information selectively and are sensationalising it. It is appalling,” she said.
Observers and experts feel today that in a situation where there is fear of a terror strike and when there could be many more people like Headleys around, there a need for all citizens to be vigilant.
“Please keep the media shut when investigating. Please do not leak information. There is not need to serialise such incidents on a day-to-day basis,” said Visvanathan. He said that Rahul Bhatt was not being selectively targetted and neither was Mahesh Bhatt.
“It's not just about Mahesh Bhatt but I hope the presence of Mahesh Bhatt will extend justice to what I call a third circle of innocence,” he added.
Shobha De had recently written that Mahesh Bhatt's family was dysfunctional and that Rahul Bhatt should have known better. However, when faced with what she had written, Bhatt defended his son saying, “My son is a hero. My son and his friend have earned the clean chit as they walked into the Head of Crime office in Mumbai.”
“I am happy that it happened with us because if it hadn't been with Mahesh Bhatt’s son, probably there wouldn't have been any debates or forums like this at all. And to Shobha De I would like to quote Nelson Mandela: ‘I defeated my opponent without dishonouring him’. Always attack the argument Ms De, not the person,” added Pooja Bhatt.
Salve interrupted at this point saying, “When the rule of law collapses, you drift into a lynch-mob mentality. That is exactly what we have become. We have become more and more like a lynch mob and less and less like a democracy.”
When faced with the fact that lawyers and police do use the media to drum up a publicity campaign, Salve did not try to defend his coterie. Instead he said, “Of course they do. There is no doubt. Everyone does it. We have become inept at delivering results. So all we want to do is to plant stories.We have to damn people's reputation using the media, our courts don't work because our system doesn't work.”
Visvanathan rounded off the debate by saying that the action of Rahul Bhatt and his friend Vilas going to the police to give information was that of an active citizenship.
“Should citizens follow suit? I get very worried when high-society people pretend lynching as an act of table manners. That is what I really object to,” he said.
Results of the SMS/web poll: Headley case: was it correct to mention names during the investigation?
Yes: 46 per cent
No: 54 per cent
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