Mumbai:
A large crowd waited in anticipation outside the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai as six men accused in the Malegaon blasts case were about to walk free. Elsewhere in the city, another accused in the same case was to be released from the Byculla jail. These seven men finally walked into freedom after spending five long years in jail.
The men are among the nine accused who had been granted bail earlier this month after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) told a special court that it wouldn't oppose their bail plea. They were arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in 2006 and charged with orchestrating blasts in Malegaon that killed 31 people. They were booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) that denied them bail for five years.
Even as seven of the nine accused - Noor ul Huda Shamshudioha Ansari, Shabbir Ahmed Masiullah, Raees Ahmed, Dr Salman Farsi, Dr Farukh Maghdumi, Mohammed Ali, Mohammed Zahid, Asif Bashir Khan and Abrar Ahmed Saeed - were released, two of them - Mohammed Ali and Asif Khan - will continue to remain in jail as they have also been charged for involvement in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case. All of them were alleged to be members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
"We are happy and justified. We are innocent and were wrongly arrested. Feel like a pigeon who has been released from a cage", Noorul, one of the accused said, summing up his feelings.
Abrar Ahmed, who was released from the Byculla Jail, thanked God saying, "We have been released. We are very happy."
The relief and joy was shared by their families back in Malegaon. It was time to celebrate as the long and arduous wait for their loved ones had finally ended.
For the accused and their kin, it was vindication as they had been claiming innocence. In an internal note, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had, in April, told the NIA that the nine men arrested were innocent and that only members of the right-wing group arrested last year should be probed for the blasts. The review came after Swami Aseemanand's confession in January this year, which pointed to the involvement of right-wing groups in the Malegaon blasts. The case was then re-investigated, though the Swami later retracted his confession in March. The special MCOCA court, hearing the case, finally granted them bail earlier this month. However, the final report in the case by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is yet to be filed.
Meanwhile, politics had begun even before the seven men were freed.
"This is secularism in the Congress' parlance. In their own nation, Hindus are labelled as terrorists, while others like Kasab and Afzal Guru have still not been hanged", Uddhav Thackeray, Executive President of the Shiv Sena said.
The Congress, meanwhile, tried to corner some credit for the release. "We have been continuously demanding to the government to conduct an enquiry against ATS officers because of whom injustice was being done with innocents for the past five-and-a-half years. It's not about the Congress or the NCP; we are demanding action against ATS officers for their irresponsible acts", Congress MLA Naseem Khan said.
The families of the accused are also demanding answers on who would compensate for the lost years. For the seven men too, chapter isn't closed yet as their fate still depends on the final report that the NIA will file in the days to come.