By Afroz Alam Sahil and Amit Kumar, TwoCircles.net
Zaheeruddin Ahmed and Nisaruddin Ahmed, two brothers and residents of Gulbarga, Karnataka, lost a major chunk of their lives to fighting charges that had nothing to do with them. While the younger brother Nisarrudin spent 23 years in jail, Zameeruddin sepnt 14 years in jail. Their crime? To this day, the duo have no idea what wrong they committed.
The two were picked up in relation to the serial train blasts during the night of December 5 and 6, 1993, in which two persons were killed and 22 injured. Initially, the police booked them for a bomb blast that had taken place in October 1993 in a Muslim educational institute in Hyderabad. They were also, somehow booked in few unsolved bomb blasts that had taken place in August and September that year, Subsequently, they were booked in the serial train blasts and the only evidence that the police produced was their alleged custodial confessions: the provisions of TADA were later invoked to make these admissible.
The two brothers, who are soft-spoken, recounted their experience in front of a packed Constitution Club attending the Peoples Tribunal on Innocent Acquitted. At one point, Nisaruddin stopped speaking as emotions got the better of him; but he bravely carried on. Speaking with Twocircles.net, the two talk of what lies ahead for them, and why they still have hope with the judiciary.