“We were kept in underpants for 4 months. Everybody in the jail used to call us blast waale”
By TCN News,
Jaipur: “We were treated like criminals and terrorists in the jail. We were tortured to the extent that we might have gone mad. We had been provided only one pot to eat, drink and wash. We were kept in under wears only for almost 4 months. Everybody in the jail used to call us ‘blast waale’, despite the fact that no charge of Jaipur blasts was framed against us”, narrated Suhail Modi, one of the 10 Muslim youths acquitted of Jaipur blast charge and released from jail on 9th December.
10 of the 14 Muslim youths acquitted of Jaipur blast charge on 9th Dec. 2011
A number of Muslim youths were arrested following the serial bomb blasts in Jaipur on 13th May 2008. When Muslim and Human Rights organisations created pressure, the ATS released most of them. Then they framed false charges of indulging in SIMI activities against 14 persons including 10 from Kota, 1 from Baran 2 from Jodhpur and 1 from Jhalawar.
These people spent almost three and a half years in jail. They faced severe torture, humiliation, defamation in the society, destruction of their career and occupations and a wound on their hearts forever.
All 14 were acquitted by the Rajasthan High Court on 9th December. While 10 of them were released from jail on the same day, 3 others are still facing other charges in Gujarat and a trial is going on against them and one Inamurrahman was detained further as a case is pending against him in Madhya Pradesh.
Er. Mohammad Salim, national secretary, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (3rd from left)and others at the press conference
The Rajasthan Muslim Forum, an umbrella group of prominent Muslim organisations of Rajasthan, APCR and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind welcomed these 10 people at Muslim Musafir Khana after their release. The next day, Rajasthan Muslim Forum, JIH Rajasthan and APCR held a joint press conference in Jaipur.
Two of the victims, Suhail Modi and Mohammad Azam Gajdhar were also present in the press conference and shared the agony they had passed through during the past 3 and a half years. “Now, we have been proved innocent by the court, this is the victory of justice. We will start our lives anew and continue the works of social service we used to do with the Jamaat” said Azam.
Er. Mohammad Salim, national secretary, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, told the media that this ‘justice’ was incomplete, till the real culprits are bought behind the bars and the guilty police officers, responsible for destroying lives of these innocent people are brought to justice. He demanded from the state government to get the Jaipur blasts case reinvestigated, as it was earlier probed by the communal officers appointed by the BJP government.
Qari Mueenuddeen, convener, Rajasthan Muslim Forum and Advocate Paker Farooq, State head of the APCR demanded Rs. 25 lakh compensation for each of the victims acquitted in the Jaipur blast case, as they had faced mental, physical, economic and social damage following their arrest and custody.