Anurag Basu ran a cyber café in Gaya, Bihar, but his decision led to his economic and psychological misery.
New Delhi: The decision of Anurag Basu, who used to run a cyber café in Gaya, Bihar, to catch hold of two Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists in September 2017, was perhaps the worst decision that he took in his life, as it opened doors of economic and psychological misery for him and led to harassment from few officers of the Bihar police who wanted to take credit for arresting the terrorists. These terrorists were a part of the cell that had carried out the Ahmedabad 2008 blast and the July 2013 bombing.
It all started after two individuals came to Basu’s café, Vishnu café, situated at Rajendra Ashram area of Gaya, 100 km from the state capital Patna, and sought to use the computer. However, when Baus asked them for their ID card and mobile number, they went away.
“Later, when I was surfing the internet, I came across pictures of 8 terrorists who were accused of the serial blast in Ahmedabad in Gujarat in 2008. I instantly recognized one of them as the same individual who had visited my café, but refused to use it when I asked for the ID. I took the printout of the pictures and also gave a copy to my staff. At 1.12 pm, on 13 September, Taushif Pathan and Sana Khan again came to my café but started going to another café when I asked them for the ID. This, till I told them to sit on a computer. I confirmed through the printout that indeed they were wanted terrorists,” Basu told The Sunday Guardian.
As soon as he was sure that they were wanted terrorists, he first called up the then SSP Gaya at 1.32 pm, whose number was printed on the wanted notice. There was no response from her side. Then he called up the SHO, Civil Lines at 1.33 pm and explained to him the situation. The SHO told Basu that he was leaving and asked him to ensure that the two persons don’t leave the cafe. The police station was less than 1 km away from the café. From 1.33 pm till 1.58 pm, Basu called the SHO eight times, but all he got was the assurance that the force was reaching.
In between this, Basu went inside the café and saw that the two had opened two pages on the browser—a Facebook profile and a gmail account. They called Basu to seek his help in attaching files from a pen drive that had a folder named “chand” (moon). To delay this, Basu decreased the internet speed even as he kept telling the duo to keep trying.
“When they saw that I was frequently going out and calling someone, they got suspicious and left the café abruptly. I asked the local shop owners to join me and follow them, but all of them refused as sometime ago, they had faced harassment from police for reporting a crime and no one wanted to become a part of police hassle. Left with no option, I started following them, even as I kept calling the police. When the two saw me following them, they started to run. Even as I was running after them, I was hit by a White Maruti 800 after which I fell on the ground. I stood up and ran after them, who by then had sat on a rickshaw,” Basu, who was 30 years old at that time and is also a trained martial art expert, recalled.
Basu, who is a Maths graduate, then caught hold of the rickshaw handle and forced it to stop after which the duo started punching him, but using his karate skill, Basu was able to defend himself and immobilise both of them by punching them on sensitive points.
“I called the SHO again, and got the same response: we are coming. Then after a few minutes I saw a police Bolero with Civil Lines PS written on it stopping near me. The policemen came out of the vehicle and took them into custody. When they were taken into the police station, the police did not take away their mobile, due to which they kept calling someone even from inside the prison,” Basu said.
Later, when he called the SSP to seek whether he had apprehended the right people or they were innocent, the SSP told him, “You have caught them, you have the printout, you should know whether they are terrorists or not. How should we know?” That night at 9.30 pm, he got a call from the Civil Lines police station which asked him to reach his café. “When I went there with my staff, I saw policemen and media personnel standing in front of my shop. They asked me to open the café and show me which computer the duo were using. I pointed at computer number 6. They took it away. Next day, I saw news report that said how Gaya police under the leadership of DSP Alok Kumar raided a cyber café and arrested two IM terrorists. There was no mention of what had happened in the afternoon or the role I had played in catching them,” Basu recalled.
Later, as per procedure, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) got in touch with him and when they heard the entire story including how Gaya police was taking credit, they informed a couple of journalists who reached out to Basu. “When they media people spoke to me, including Anil Ojha (a senior journalist with an English daily), I narrated the entire story. I also presented proof of the entire thing to the IB. This caused a lot of anger in some police officers of Gaya police who asked me not to speak to the media again. I was told that I will be put behind bars under Section 120 B (conspiracy) if I kept sharing my story. The local police came to my café the next day and demanded that I show every kind of license, permission that is needed to open the café. I showed them everything. This went on for months. One day, the DSP called me to his office and kept me waiting outside his door for one hour only to scold me and ask me to go away once he called me inside,” Basu said.
According to a local journalist, the said DSP was trying for a gallantry award for “arresting” the two IM cadres and he would regularly come to the spot when the local journalists sat and ask them not to carry any story on Basu.
In February 2018, Basu was summoned by the court to record his statement. “I went to the court on foot, I had no money. The judge when he saw my condition scolded the police and asked them to provide me with security to ATS DSP Kundan Kumar Singh. I told each and everything as had happened. I trusted the police a lot, but when I saw the charge-sheet copy, there was no mention of what I did, I was named in the charge-sheet as just a witness. I was heart-broken, the charge-sheet carried the story of what the DSP did. I called Kundan Singh who scolded me and said that I have not done anything big,” Basu said.
A few days later, a team of policemen from Telangana and Gujarat ATS came and when they heard Basu’s story, they told him to forget everything as there was no point in pursuing it. With his permission, they took away the hard-disk of computers installed in his café and on the basis of what they recovered from it, arrested eight more terrorists. All this while, the SHO of Civil Lines who was present at the café, kept scolding him for sharing the fact with Telangana and Gujarat police.
In October 2018, one year after his decision to play the role of a good citizen, Basu was forced to shut down his café and leave Gaya and move to his village home which was built by his father, a landless tiller.
“I had to shut down my shop as due to regular police visits, no staff wanted to work in my café, people stopped coming to my shop, the owner, who also got scared, asked me to vacate it. All my computers were with the police. I was in a state of penury, with no money even to pay for house rent or the school fee of my 5-year-old son. I had no choice but to go back to my village,” Basu said.
After suffering this crippling setback, Basu has trained 1,600 plus people in Karate, free of cost, which he did by going from one school to the other, offering his expertise so that he could start from somewhere. “Now, I have opened a small training center in Gaya. I take a minimal fee from some students so I can manage my home. I travel 50 km every day to train them,” Basu, who now stays in Salempur village, Tikari block, said with a sense of pride.
As per Basu, 24 February 2018 was one of the happiest days of his life—he was awarded Rs 3,500 and a commendation letter by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his act. “I wanted to join the army, but due to financial inability, I could not take coaching and hence was not able to clear the examination. Whatever has happened, is past now. The police officers and the government have other things to take care of. I am doing what I can, passing on my skills to people so that they can use it to defend themselves in time of need,” Basu told The Sunday Guardian.