Maha ATS in dock for taking suspects’ pics

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The families of the alleged terror suspects and the advocates representing them have objected to the high-handedness of the Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) from Maharashtra.

A complaint has been filed with the police commissioner of Bengaluru, Jyoti Prakash Mirji, stating that personnel from ATS Maharashtra photographed and took videos of the families and advocates representing the terror suspects inside the court hall.

The suspects were produced before the 1st Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.

The court extended the police custody of Ubedulla-Ur-Rehman, arrested from Hyderabad, and Mohammad Akram from Nanded in Maharashtra till September 29. The other 11 accused were sent to judicial custody till October 11.

The Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) from Maharashtra was present in the court with a body warrant for Mohammad Akram. However, the court kept the request in abeyance as the police custody of Akram was not over yet.

Families of the terror suspects noticed that some people were photographing and shooting videos of all the people associated with the suspects present in court.

Their complaint said: ‘I state that I had been waiting in the court from the afternoon. The investigating officer of the ATS Maharashtra had come to the court to seek custody of Mohammad Akram.

There were three persons with the investigating officer. Throughout the court proceedings and before that, the three were taking photographs and were videographing the relatives and advocates representing the accused.’

When the photographers were confronted, they first lied and said they were from an
NGO. Later they admitted that they were from ATS Maharashtra. The families complained about this to the senior officer of the ATS.

The senior officer reprimanded his two officials, but refused to erase the photographs from the camera.

“He introduced himself as an officer from ATS Maharashtra and asked us not to question the police,’’ one of the complainants said.

The families claim that the ATS officials who shot the videos and took photographs on a smart-phone have given their names as Ranjith Thorat and Raje Ithap alias Patel.

The complaint has been filed by the families of Muthi ur Rahman, Shoaib Ahmad Mirza, his brother Aziz Ahmad Mirza, Abdul Hakeem Jamadar, Wahid Hussain alias Sohail, Riyaz Ahmed Byahatti alias Saleem, Mohamad Akram alias Khalid, Babu alias Mehaboob and Mohammed Sadiq Lashkar alias Raja.

Despite repeated attempts, Commissioner Mirji could not be reached for a comment on the matter.