This cyber café owner who caught two Ahmedabad serial blasts terror suspects in Gaya town in September and helped local police take them into custody is wondering if he did the right thing for himself. Anurag Basu’s cyber café is today a no-go area and business has suffered. Penury looms over him.
The terror suspects used to live only a few kilometres away from his home, and locals are now afraid of stepping into his cyber café for fear of retaliation. In the past, Mr. Basu, 30, used to earn ₹30,000 every month from his internet centre. Now he earns ₹3,000.
After the incident, all the four employees of Mr. Basu’s cyber café quit working there. The number of visitors became a trickle, and the local people who had praised him for his exemplary courage started advising him to be “careful.” Suspicious looking people drop into his café, he says.
Mr. Basu lives with his parents, wife and six-year-old son in a two-room settlement, paying ₹4,500 rent in Gaya town. “If they were criminals I would not have caught them but how could I let go of the traitors of the country?” says Mr. Basu.
For some eight months, Taushif Khan and Sana Khan were regular visitors to his cyber café. When asked for their identity, they would only give their mobile phone numbers. “On September 13, I asked them for their identity but they dodged and started surfing the net. I got suspicious and peeped into their computer screen and found a Pakistani flag. I came out of my café and called the police,” he added. “Meanwhile, both of them got suspicious and started to run away. I chased them and caught hold of Taushif Khan’s hand tightly. My karate training and courage helped me hold on to him until the local police came and took them into custody.”
The police found that Taushif and Sana were the main accused in the July 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts case in which 56 people were killed and over 200 were injured. Along with the duo, their accomplice Shahbar Khan too was arrested from Gaya on September 13.
Gaya Senior Superintendent of Police Garima Malik and the local Civil Lines police station officer-in-charge, Hari Ojha have assured of all help including more patrolling in his area. “Our department will formally appreciate Anurag Basu’s exemplary courage very soon,” says Ms. Malik.
