Abdul Gani Goni, 50, one of the four acquitted in the Samleti bomb blast case, was received by hundreds of locals at his native place Bhaderwah in J&K’s Chenab Valley on Saturday.
Mr. Goni, arrested in 1994 and proved innocent after serving 23 years in jail, walked into a swarm of locals despite the wet weather. Mr. Goni, a resident of Mohalla Passri, was taken in a procession to the graveyard where his father is buried. The father died while Goni was lodged in Jodhpur jail. “I feel sorry for providing no help in your old age. They did not even let me see your body,” he said at the graveyard.
Mr. Goni said he was picked up from the Samta Express while on the way home from Visakhapatnam after attending a session of preaching.
Earlier, three others from the Kashmir Valley were acquitted in the case.
