The unflinching memory that he has of his father is when the police took him away from the dinner table as the family had just sat down to eat their food.
“He had barely put the first morsel in his mouth when the police came to pick him up. After that day five years ago, it will be today that the entire family will again have food together,” 11-year-old Osama Raees Khan, son of 2006 Malegaon blast accused Raees Ahmed Rajab Ali Mansuri, told The Hindu as he waited patiently for hours together along with many others from Malegaon outside the Arthur Road prison here on Wednesday afternoon.
“All I want is to eat food with my father,” he said.
Five years after their arrest, seven of the nine 2006 Malegaon blasts accused — Noorul Huda Samsudoha, Shabbir Ahmed Masiullah, Raees Ahmed Rajab Ali Mansuri, Dr. Salman Farsi Abdul Latif Aimi, Dr. Farogh Iqbal Ahmed Magdumi, Mohammad Zahid Abdul Majid Ansari and Abrar Ahmed Gulam Ahmed — walked out of the prison on bail in the evening.
A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court had granted them bail on November 5 on the solvent surety of Rs. 50,000 each after the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the agency investigating the case at present, did not oppose their bail pleas. The trial in the matter is set to continue, advocate Irfana Hamdani said.
The NIA said in a reply filed before the court: “During the course of further investigation, the NIA - after revelation of Swami Aseemanand, arrested in Mecca Masjid bomb blast case - reviewed the collected evidence and collected fresh evidence in the form of statements and forensic reports. Further investigation is in progress to collect more evidence for arriving at definitive investigative conclusions.”
The Anti-Terrorism Squad, which investigated the case initially, had claimed that many of the arrested were members of the banned Islamic outfit Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Even the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which was later handed over the investigation, toed the same line.
It was only after Swami Aseemanand's confession about the alleged involvement of right-wing Hindu fundamentalists in the 2006 Malegaon blast was leaked that the line of investigation changed.
The scene outside the Arthur Road prison, where six of the seven accused were lodged, was of subdued happiness. The procedural delay made the family members wait for hours before they could see their loved ones. The seventh accused, Abrar Ahmed Gulam Ahmed, was released from Byculla prison.
“No doubt we are happy that they will now be with us. But real happiness will come only when the court will discharge them from this matter or the prosecution will withdraw the case against them,” Iqbal Ahmed Maqdumi, 63-year-old father of Farogh Iqbal Ahmed Magdumi, said, as he continuously answered calls from home. .
“Back home, they are all waiting very eagerly for these boys. The entire Malegaon is celebrating right now. It is our Eid now. But our struggle is still on. It will continue till these boys are declared innocent and discharged with dignity,” Maulana Abdul Hamid Azhari, spokesperson of Kul Jamaat-i-Tanzeem, Malegaon, said, echoing the feelings of all the relatives of the accused.
“Of course, I am very happy. There has been a delay in granting justice. Justice is yet to be done,” Salman Farsi Abdul Latif Aimi said.
Raees Ahmed Rajab Ali Mansuri said: “We are very happy to have come out of the jail. But we want our dignity back.”
Shabbir Ahmed said: “I want to thank Allah. We are all keen to meet our family members. I have been falsely implicated and I am sure one day I will be given a clean chit by the court. I hope the trial will begin soon.”
