By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Rarely does it happen when you mourn both victim and accused of a case. The Muslim-dominated Malegaon is doing it today. Exactly three years ago on this date the powerlooms town was rocked by serial blasts killing 31 people and injuring 321 others. It was Shab-e-Baraat and the blasts had occurred in a mosque, a graveyard and a bustling market, so most of the victims were Muslims. Today the town with 70% Muslim population is mourning not only the victims of the blasts but also the accused of the blasts – all nine accused are Muslims languishing in jail and waiting for the probe to finish and the trial to start.
The deadly serial blasts took place on September 8, 2006 during Friday prayers in Hamidiya Masjid, a nearby graveyard and in Mushawarat Chowk. The police claimed that the blasts were aimed at triggering communal violence and were the handiwork of Muslim extremists and began probe on this pattern.
The Malegaon police and a special investigation team conducted the initial probe but the case was handed over to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on October 23, 2006. Between October and December that year the police and ATS arrested nine Muslim youths claiming they were members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India and were involved in the blasts. Interestingly, all the arrests were made on the basis of the confessional statement of an unemployed man Abrar Ahmed Gulam Ahmed (38) who turned approver in the case only to retract his statement in April 2009, claiming the police forced him to name the suspects.
The ATS filed chargesheet on December 12, 2006. But due to the protests by the residents of the town that innocents were arrested and made accused for the blasts, the same month the case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Two and half years on, the federal investigating agency is yet to complete its probe and file chargesheet.
Meanwhile, when on the basis of the ATS chargesheet the trial in the case was started under the provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), which makes confessions made to police admissible in court, the accused approached the court pleading for removal of MCOCA from the case. Hearing the petition of the accused the Supreme Court stayed the blast trial in February 2008. One and half years on, the apex court is yet to give its final verdict.
In the last three years the residents of the town have made several presentations before the state and central governments to say the accused are all innocents. When another blast occurred in the town in September 2008 claiming lives of six people and first time Hindu extremists were arrested for it, the Malegaon people intensified their movement for fair probe in the September 2006 serial blasts.
The locals have raised many loopholes in the police claim regarding the accused for the 2006 blasts.
The nine accused of the case are: Noorul Huda Shamshudduha (26), Shabbir Ahmed Masiullah (39), Raees Ahmed Mansuri (33), Dr Salman Farsi (38), Dr Farooq Maqdumi (36), Mohammad Ali Shaikh (40), Asif Khan Bashir Khan (33), Abrar Ahmed (36) and Mohammad Zahid Ansari (29).
The police made Mohammed Zahid Ansari an accused of planting a bomb at Mushawarat Chowk. But locals said Zahid was seen leading prayers 700 km away in a village called Phoolsangvi in Yavatmal district. And nearly 200 people of that village are said to have signed an affidavit saying Zahid was there on day of the blast.
Similarly, the police claimed that Shabbir Ahmed Masiullah was chief conspirator of the blasts. But at the time of the blasts Masiullah was already in police custody.
Moreover, the police released sketches of accused who bought cycles in Malegaon for the blasts. In the sketches all the accused were clean shaven. But all the accused police arrested have been sporting beards for years.