Zaheer Alam Falahi clearly recalls the chilly winter night six years ago when his nephew Khalid Mujahid was abducted. Falahi was returning to Allahabad on a State bus after attending a programme in Rae Bareli when his phone rang. “As soon as I got the news of the abduction, I called the station officer. But he was unresponsive,” said Mr. Falahi. “We were clueless initially. Our family works in public interest and Khalid had no animosity with any person.”
According to Mr. Falahi, his nephew was abducted in a Tata Sumo from Mahatwana mohalla under the Madiyahu police station in his home district Jaunpur on December 16, 2007. However, six days later, the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh police claimed to have arrested Khalid and another person, Tariq Qasmi of Azamgarh, near the Barabanki railway station with a huge cache of arms and ammunition. They said the two were involved in the serial court blasts in Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi that year.
The families of the accused strongly contested the police claims and after much hue and cry, the Mayawati regime constituted a single-member Commission in 2008, headed by retired Judge R.D. Nimesh. The Nimesh Commission report termed their arrests “suspicious” and established that the two were abducted on December 12 and 16. When Mr. Falahi sought general diary entries through an RTI relating to “Khalid’s abduction and (or) arrest,” the Madiyahu Circle Officer told him that Khalid was arrested on December 16 at 6.30 p.m. by the STF from Madiyahu. However, even today Khalid’s family is waiting for closure.
The Nimesh Commission report was submitted to the Samajwadi Party government last August and it was tabled in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly this year. However, it was done only after Khalid’s death in police custody on May 18. The police said he had died due to heart failure even as his relatives alleged that he had been killed.
Khalid’s death is still shrouded in mystery as a recent RTI query reveals that he did not suffer from any illness since he was sent to jail.
While the report was not raised in the recently-concluded winter session of the Assembly, civil groups continue to pressure the government. Rihai Manch, a forum for the release of innocent youth implicated in terror cases, says it is clear that the State is not acting on the report due to political reasons.
