Police forced me to eat faeces, drink detergent: 2005 Delhi blasts accused

Srinagar: Mohammad Hussain Fazili, 42 and a shawl weaver from Srinagar, alleged physical and mental torture in 12 years of his captivity after a special team of Delhi police took him in custody on wrongful charges for the 2005 Delhi serial blast.

According to a report in The Indian Express, Faizili said, "I still tremble recalling those days. They forced feaces into our mouth and then shoved rotis and water so we would gulp it down."

He said, the torture began even before the accused were taken to court. Recalling the first 50 days he spent in police remand, Fazili informed, "As we arrived in Delhi, we were taken to the police station in Lodhi Colony. I was asked to lie on a bench and my hands were tied underneath it. Two policemen stood on my legs and one walked over my abdomen. Another forced me to drink water mixed with detergent."

"They said, ‘Don’t dare open your mouth before judge sahib… If you do, you will face even worse’," Fazili said, speaking of the threats dealt to him before he met the judge.

The police also forced him to sign 200 blank papers, with the threat that they had other means of implicating him for the crime, even though he was innocent.

“They (the policemen) would tell us that they knew we are innocent. But they would tell us they have a hundred ways to implicate us in the case,” he alleged.

The torture that went on for 50 days seized when he was moved to the Tihar jail. "But there was a fear of attack from criminals. They were very aggressive initially — they made me sweep about two kilometres of the floor. But later, as the case unfolded, their behaviour changed. The day I was acquitted, sweets were distributed.”

Mohammad Hussain Fazili was released from jail, by a Delhi court, after 12 years, along with another accused, Mohd Rafiq Shah, on February 16, 2017.