The Delhi Police’s Special Cell likes to think of itself as one of India’s premier investigating agencies. It certainly gets an inordinate amount of attention from the central government, which often tasks it with probing cases of terror that should be going to other bodies like the National Investigation Agency or the Central Bureau of Investigation. Unfortunately, that self-perception and central attention does not always bear fruit.
On Sunday news emerged that Special Cell had allegedly been involved in yet another frame job, in this case using one of its own informers to plant evidence against a Kashmiri man who was then charged with being a militant. An NIA chargesheet filed on January 24 claimed that there was no evidence against Jammu and Kashmir resident Liaquat Shah whom Special Cell had arrested in 2013 claiming that he was a member of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.
At the time, Special Cell had claimed that Shah was trying to infiltrate into India from the Nepal border, and was part of an alleged conspiracy to avenge India’s decision to execute Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri who was convicted for being involved in the December 2001 Parliament attack. The NIA chargesheet claims, however, that a Sabir Khan Pathan, a police informer who had lived in the Special Cell barracks for the past eight years, had allegedly planted arms, ammunition and explosives at a guesthouse in Old Delhi to frame Shah.
Pockmarked history
Pathan, who has been absconding ever since NIA took over the case, has been named in the chargesheet, with agency sources telling several reporters that at least three Special Cell officers will also be implicated in the matter. As far as Shah goes, the NIA chargesheet confirms the J&K Police’s stand that he was returning to India as part of the state’s rehabilitation programme.
This is not the first time that Special Cell’s grandiose investigations have come to naught. A Right to Information inquiry from a couple of years ago confirmed that the agency has only managed a 30% conviction rate. Set up in 1986 to deal with high-profile crime and terrorism, this wing of the Delhi Police has gained a reputation for big busts that rarely translate into actual convictions.
The agency may boast today that it successfully cracked the Parliament attack in 2001, but that case also featured the wrongful incarceration of Kashmiri civil rights activist SAR Geelani and the false case against Kashmiri journalist Iftikhar Gilani. Over its history, the cell has featured an officer whom the vigilance department transferred for allegedly being involved with the oil mafia and another who was shot dead by a property dealer for allegedly being part of an extortion racket.
Encounter specialists
Special Cell is also famous for its encounter specialists, many of whom were not always on the right side of the law. The National Human Rights Commission in 2006 indicted a Special Cell officer for conducting an alleged fake encounter, killing five “notorious gangsters” in northeast Delhi, while the Central Bureau of Investigation has charged officers from the agency for attempting to frame their own informers.
“Special Cell has become a law unto itself, a marauding force, ‘encountering’ and detaining ‘suspects’ almost at will,” wrote Manisha Sethi of the Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association, in a piece detailing some of the police wing’s most infamous cases. “This is not a charge of bleeding-heart liberals and human rights wallahs alone, but a fact corroborated by judgment after judgment of the city courts.”
Many of these stories have often been accompanied by murmurs of infighting between the investigative agencies. Special Cell’s raison d’etre was somewhat undercut in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks with the creation of the NIA, which is expected to be tasked with national terror cases.
Yet the NIA has received step-fatherly treatment from the Centre since its inception, with the Home Ministry preferring to give terror cases to the Special Cell, presumably because of the kinds of results it promises. The NIA, a much younger agency, has none of the clout or network that the Special Cell has, but it also lacks the chequered history of the older police wing.
With yet another instance of the Special Cell allegedly framing an accused in a terror case, it might be time to heed the call of activists who have long pointed out that the Delhi Police wing needs a complete overhaul.
On Sunday news emerged that Special Cell had allegedly been involved in yet another frame job, in this case using one of its own informers to plant evidence against a Kashmiri man who was then charged with being a militant. An NIA chargesheet filed on January 24 claimed that there was no evidence against Jammu and Kashmir resident Liaquat Shah whom Special Cell had arrested in 2013 claiming that he was a member of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.
At the time, Special Cell had claimed that Shah was trying to infiltrate into India from the Nepal border, and was part of an alleged conspiracy to avenge India’s decision to execute Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri who was convicted for being involved in the December 2001 Parliament attack. The NIA chargesheet claims, however, that a Sabir Khan Pathan, a police informer who had lived in the Special Cell barracks for the past eight years, had allegedly planted arms, ammunition and explosives at a guesthouse in Old Delhi to frame Shah.
Pockmarked history
Pathan, who has been absconding ever since NIA took over the case, has been named in the chargesheet, with agency sources telling several reporters that at least three Special Cell officers will also be implicated in the matter. As far as Shah goes, the NIA chargesheet confirms the J&K Police’s stand that he was returning to India as part of the state’s rehabilitation programme.
This is not the first time that Special Cell’s grandiose investigations have come to naught. A Right to Information inquiry from a couple of years ago confirmed that the agency has only managed a 30% conviction rate. Set up in 1986 to deal with high-profile crime and terrorism, this wing of the Delhi Police has gained a reputation for big busts that rarely translate into actual convictions.
The agency may boast today that it successfully cracked the Parliament attack in 2001, but that case also featured the wrongful incarceration of Kashmiri civil rights activist SAR Geelani and the false case against Kashmiri journalist Iftikhar Gilani. Over its history, the cell has featured an officer whom the vigilance department transferred for allegedly being involved with the oil mafia and another who was shot dead by a property dealer for allegedly being part of an extortion racket.
Encounter specialists
Special Cell is also famous for its encounter specialists, many of whom were not always on the right side of the law. The National Human Rights Commission in 2006 indicted a Special Cell officer for conducting an alleged fake encounter, killing five “notorious gangsters” in northeast Delhi, while the Central Bureau of Investigation has charged officers from the agency for attempting to frame their own informers.
“Special Cell has become a law unto itself, a marauding force, ‘encountering’ and detaining ‘suspects’ almost at will,” wrote Manisha Sethi of the Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association, in a piece detailing some of the police wing’s most infamous cases. “This is not a charge of bleeding-heart liberals and human rights wallahs alone, but a fact corroborated by judgment after judgment of the city courts.”
Many of these stories have often been accompanied by murmurs of infighting between the investigative agencies. Special Cell’s raison d’etre was somewhat undercut in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks with the creation of the NIA, which is expected to be tasked with national terror cases.
Yet the NIA has received step-fatherly treatment from the Centre since its inception, with the Home Ministry preferring to give terror cases to the Special Cell, presumably because of the kinds of results it promises. The NIA, a much younger agency, has none of the clout or network that the Special Cell has, but it also lacks the chequered history of the older police wing.
With yet another instance of the Special Cell allegedly framing an accused in a terror case, it might be time to heed the call of activists who have long pointed out that the Delhi Police wing needs a complete overhaul.
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