"Warning to the media: Don’t challenge the state or else…" - Shahina K K

I understand that this is an occasion to talk about what journalism means to me, what it should be and how journalism facilitate change and how it voices the life of the marginalized and the oppressed. I am supposed to deliver a very brief speech of hardly five/six minutes. Hence, I am not getting into the goals and objectives of journalism or its impact on society or anything like that..Instead, I am using this opportunity to explain what I am.

See, I happen to be a Muslim, but I am not a terrorist.

Unfortunately, anyone carrying a Muslim name, no matter whether he or she is a believer, agnostic or atheist, has to say this as an opening line in every public dialogue. I hardly practice any religion since my adolescence, yet I have to make this kind of a statement. 

You may have an idea on what I am going to talk about.  In fact this award gives me a great opportunity today to talk about the crime I have committed.  

I interviewed two of the prosecution witnesses in the infamous Bangalore blast case in which Kerala PDP leader Abdul Nasar Madani is an accused. Madani had spent 10 years in prison as an under-trail in the Coimbatore blast case of 1997 and later exonerated in 2007.The firebrand orator once triggered some kind of belligerence among the post-Babri masjid Kerala Muslim youth. Later, he had made a public alliance with the left parties in the last Lok Sabha polls. A man who was speaking the language of democracy, a politician who was using the tools of parliamentary politics, had been again taken by the Police, this time, Karnataka police for his alleged involvement in Banglore blast. He was arrested immediately after the Loksabha polls.

Two of the six prosecution witnesses in the case, Jose Thomas and Mohammed Jamal who is the younger brother of Madani, had approached the court alleging that their testimonies had been fabricated. The third witness was on death bed in a hospital in Ernakulam on the day the police recorded his testimony. He died four days later. Police records say that the testimony was recorded in Kannur, around 500 kms away from Ernakulam where he was admitted. The hospital records prove that on that day he was not in Kannur, but was very much in the hospital in Ernakulam.

In this back ground, I started my investigation into the police conspiracy theory. Obviously as a journalist, I suspected the police story. My assumption was not wrong. I decided to meet the other prosecution witnesses from Kudaku, Karnataka who had testified that they had seen Madani in the ginger estate in Lakkeri in Kudaku. Two of them told me that they had seen Madani only on television. One among them, K.K Yogananda, an RSS activist, was not even aware that he had been listed by the police as a witness.

The other person is Rafeeq, whose story is very typical of what happens to hundreds of Muslim youngsters who are arrested and tortured by the police with absolutely no evidence. He was forced to give testimony against Madani.

I went there on 16th November last year. On the way to Rafeeq’s place after meeting Yogananda, I was talking to local people over there. The police came and started questioning me. Initially it was in an intimidating tone. They did not allow me to stay back and continue my work hence I left and we set off to meet Rafeeq.

I completed my job late in the evening and started my journey back to Kerala. On the way back, I received a call from the Circle Inspector who asked me if I was a terrorist. I did not have any answer. But the reports of the visit of a ’dubious’ woman in the garb of Tehelka journalist along with some strangers were doing the rounds in the local news papers. It is obvious that all those stories must have been planted by the police.

Meanwhile, Tehelka published the story titled, ‘Why this man is still in Prison’?  Madani may or may not be innocent. My story was not at all on the merit of the Bangalore blast case but on the fabrication of a conspiracy theory by the Police.

After a few days, I came to know from news paper reports that a case had been registered against me for intimidating witnesses in the Bangalore blast case. The rest, you may know. Initially, they charged me under sections 506 and 149 of IPC, for intimidating witnesses. They had also managed to get complaints from the witnesses I interviewed. I sought anticipatory bail in the district court of Madikeri. During the course of the hearing of my bail plea, the police sought permission of the court to add section 22 of unlawful activities prevention act, which was allowed by the sessions court and my anticipatory bail plea was rejected.

Now the bail plea is in the High Court of Karnataka. Tomorrow, the case will be heard. I don’t know what is going to happen - whether I will get bail or jail.

The case against me is nothing but a warning to the entire media, not to attempt to challenge the state. If you dare to do it, they will use draconian laws against you. If you belong to the minority community, they will also profile you. It is very difficult to prove that you are not a terrorist. It is equally difficult to prove that you are not a Maoist in our life and times.

In this era of paid news, I believe, it is important to speak for those who live on the margins, who are not able to pay. I have always tried to give visibility to those who are invisible. This award espouses my efforts and gives me support and assurance in my way ahead. This award is very special to me in the current circumstances.

I consider this as a public statement on my credentials as a bonafide journalist which indeed is very crucial for me in this time of chaos.

Thank you.

(Shahina K K is the Thiruvananthapuram correspondent of Open magazine).