Maqbool Ranga, a Kashmiri tourist guide, was picked up on October 29, 1992 for interrogation by the Border Security Force in Srinagar. Ranga’s family got his arrest certified and his wife met him in BSF’s cutody. A month later, on November 30, the same Maqbool Ranga was arrested from outside the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi with four hand-written sheets of paper and booked under the Official Secrets Act. He remained in prison for seven years and was convicted.His lawyer R M Tufail says such flagrant misuse of OSA in cases has ruined the credibility of the prosecution. ‘‘There is so much cover-up and falsification. A few days ago, we tracked down a stock witness named Ashraf Ali who has given evidence in one of our OSA cases and also appeared as witness in a narcotics case (DRI Vs Tariq Mohammad). How can the police ever justify such frauds?’’ he says.Evidence may be feeble and bizarre but cases under OSA have witnessed a spurt mostly due to two reasons. One, the change in the Delhi Police unit handling the investigations and two, the deepening chill in Indo-Pak relations.For two decades, the Special Branch registered OSA cases and has some 30-odd prosecutions to its credit — till 2000. After the attack on Parliament, the Special Cell took charge, ostensibily, since they handled terrorist crimes. More than the veterans of the Special Branch — who developed some expertise in prosecuting spies — overzealous members of the Special Cell are going the whole hog in slapping cases at the behest of the IB. So, strange patterns emerge. In five recent cases, almost identical hand-drawn sketches of cantonments (mostly Meerut) have been recovered. V K Ohri, defence counsel in two (he also appeared for Iftekar Geelani), says the ‘coincidence’ was also noticed by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Sangita Dhingra. ‘‘During one in-camera hearing, she quizzed the prosecutor as to how maps of Meerut were being found on all spies. The prosecutor had nothing to say,’’ the lawyer recalled. ‘‘The IB has been fabricating and handing over the sketches to the police and the Military Intelligence is playing ball. And what is the great national secret in these sketches that people should languish in jail?’’Besides in the case of Wasi Akhtar Zaidi, who alleges he was forced by IB personnel to draw them, similar sketches have been cited as evidence against Air Force employee, Hari Om, as well as Ajay Kumar, the Lok Sabha assistant booked under OSA, 10 days after the building was attacked by Pakistani saboteurs. The Meerut sketch assumes importance since other documents recovered from Ajay Kumar were all priced Parliament reports.Last week, the case took a curious turn when sessions judge R K Yadav, hearing Kumar’s bail plea, quashed two OSA sections citing non-availability of the complaint. Realising the case may collapse, the police filed for revision, stating that the complaint was attached to another file. The two sides are now gearing up for an interesting battle. The other bizarre case concerns K C Saini, an Air Force sergeant, booked for two separate OSA offences but managed to get bail within months in both. Last week, he was dismissed from service.Herein lies another story. The other agency that occasionally registers OSA cases is the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) but has a poor conviction record compared to the Delhi Police (a majority ended in conviction). Saini was arrested by the CBI in July 2001 as a member of a penetrative espionage ring allegedly led by Rtd Air Vice Marshal J S Kumar. The case created shockwaves in the military establishment but since the CBI did not file a chargesheet, the accused were released from prison.Saini was again picked up in June 2002, this time, by the Special Cell. He was named by Balram Singh, a sepoy of the DRDO, also in Tihar Jail on OSA charges. During interrogation, Balram Singh said Saini had contacted him before his first arrest but since he (Saini) was on bail and he himself needed money, he pilfered a computer floppy on the T-72 tank system. Balram Singh was arrested while printing data from the floppy and Saini was picked up a few days later.Saini’s interrogation report, accessed by The Indian Express, is perhaps, the most revealing in the OSA files of the Special Cell. In it, Saini reeled out names of 20 private companies dealing with Air Force supplies to whom he had been selling and also named his accomplices in the Purchase Department. This is a part of what he owned up to, ‘‘I suspect that the entire staff of the Directorate of Purchases is minting money indulging in corrupt practices, but I am confident about the fact that the following staff are working for different industrial/Air Force companies.’’When contacted by The Indian Express, Saini was categorical that he had been falsely implicated. Says he, ‘‘After my involvement in the second case, I have an uncanny dread of being picked any time by the IB again. Mine is the only case when the same person has been named in two OSA cases, by different agencies who have cited different evidence.’’Part II: Pak fooled with fakes but OSA sticksPart I: Nothing official about these secrets
