When Mumbai ‘photo-shamed’ terror suspects

In 2013-14, posters with photographs and names of wanted terror suspects appeared in public places like railway pedestrian bridges and markets in Mumbai.

After being asked by the state’s high court to pull down public hoardings carrying photographs and addresses of 57 anti-CAA protesters, the Uttar Pradesh government has put together an ordinance to circumvent the court order. The hoardings, which named rioters accused of destroying property, announced the government’s intention to recover damages from the accused.

Lucknow administration put up hoardings with photographs, names, and addresses of 57 people who have been issued recovery notice for their alleged involvement in violence during anti CAA protest last December.(ANI)

The Allahabad high court, which had taken suo motu cognisance of the hoardings, said that existing laws do not validate the decision to put up such hoardings. The issue has gone to higher judicial authorities with the Supreme Court scheduled to hear the state government’s petition challenging the Allahabad high court order. The Uttar Pradesh government, which has said that the ordinance was necessary, has explained that they were following a 2009 order of the Supreme Court which had said that such a law – named the UP Recovery of Public and Private Property Ordinance – was needed.

The question of whether suspects in criminal cases should be identified in public is a contentious one and those who oppose the tactic have said that naming and shaming suspects adversely affects the legal and judicial process, besides stigmatising social groups which the accused belong to.

In 2013-14, posters with photographs and names of wanted terror suspects appeared in public places like railway pedestrian bridges and markets in Mumbai. The posters were put up by the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) which was investigating terror attack cases in Mumbai and other cities. The banners announced cash rewards to citizens for providing information on the whereabouts of the accused. Many of the men featured on the hoardings (Yasin Bhatkal, one of the accused on the posters, was later sentenced to death for his role in planning bomb attacks) were arrested even as the posters appeared in new locations.

In July 2013, the Union minority affairs ministry told the Maharashtra chief minister that the posters were ‘discriminatory and provocative’ and could endanger social harmony.

Muslim groups in Mumbai felt that the notices maligned the community. One group wrote to the Bombay high court, the state governor, the Union minority affairs ministry and the National Human Rights Commission. Unlike the Uttar Pradesh case, where the courts intervened, the complaints in Mumbai received no redressal. The Muslim group was told that displaying photographs of wanted crime suspects in public places have been a common investigation procedure. The National Commission for Minorities said that displaying the names and photos of suspected criminals is a worldwide practice and that the complaints suggested that photographs of suspects from minority groups should not be displayed in public. The head of the commission said that while there was nothing wrong with the posters public perception can be affected if all the accused belonging to a particular group.

A former Mumbai police commissioner who spoke to this journalist said the complaints about the posters were ‘ridiculous’. “It is normal to put up these posters; it is an age-old custom in every country,” the police officer had said. “If these accused are absconding, their photographs should be displayed in the same manner. I will be surprised if the police do not do this.”

Another police officer who spoke to this journalist said while it is usual for investigative agencies to put up posters seeking information on suspects from citizens in this manner. How this information is put out is a different matter though.”

In some countries, such posters have turned digital. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States has said that the National Digital Billboard, created in December 2007, led to the capture of over 50 fugitives in ten years, besides helping investigators get information in other cases. The billboards are given to the investigative agency free of cost as public service.