Mumbai, Jul 22 (PTI) Mohammad Ali Shaikh, one of the 12 persons acquitted by the Bombay High Court in the 7/11 train blasts case, on Tuesday said what he lost in the last 19 years was “priceless”.
He also dubbed the trial court’s verdict in the case as “one-sided and blind”, and added that truth can never be harmed.
Shaikh, who was lodged in the Nagpur central prison, returned home to Mumbai on Tuesday evening.
Nineteen years after seven train blasts here killed more than 180 persons, the high court on Monday acquitted all the 12 accused, saying the prosecution utterly failed to prove the case and it was “hard to believe the accused committed the crime”.
In an interview to a Marathi news channel, Shaikh said he was visiting home for the first time after almost 19 years, but could not do so when he lost his father and brother, as well as when his elder daughter got married.
“I couldn’t participate in the ‘janaza’ (funeral prayer) and ‘namaz’ of my brother and father. This is a very painful thing. Today is the first time I have come home,” he said.
Shaikh said the HC had granted four days of parole to him after his father’s death, asking him to deposit Rs 2 lakh. But as he did not have money, he could not visit home and also did not request parole at the time of his daughter’s marriage.
According to him, whatever he has lost during his incarceration was priceless.
“It is a huge loss, which is priceless,” Shaikh said.
He said he is not seeking any compensation right now, and he would think about it after they fight the case in the Supreme Court.
The state government has already challenged the high court’s verdict in the apex court. When asked about it, Shaikh said they have faith in the Supreme Court and they are sure that they will get justice there too as all of them were innocent and were not involved in the bomb blasts.
He expressed happiness over the HC verdict, saying the sessions court had given a one-sided judgement.
“The sessions court had accepted only the prosecution’s defence, while ours was not accepted. It was a one-sided and blind judgement…Later on, the high court corrected it and gave justice,” Shaikh said.
“When the sessions court convicted us, we knew that we will have to fight in the higher court, but we sure that we will be acquitted by the court,” he added.
“Sach ko aanch nahi. Hum begunah hai (Truth cannot be harmed. We are all innocent),” he said, adding that if anyone reads the high court’s judgement, they will come to know how the case was fabricated.
Shaikh claimed he was at home in Shivajinagar area when the serial bomb blasts rocked the metropolis on July 11, 2006.
“Fourteen members of my family lived in a single storey house. My family was on the ground floor, while the families of his brothers stayed on the upper floor,” he said.
According to him, he and his family members had protested and forced the police to shut down video parlours showing pornographic films and gambling dens in the area.
“Therefore, the police targeted and threatened to implicate me in a big case,” he alleged.
Shaikh claimed that he was illegally taken into custody from 31 July to September 29, 2006 and his family members were asked not to depute any advocate as they will release him.
But he was arrested on September 29, 2006.
Shaikh was allegedly charged for assembling bombs at his house with the help of Pakistanis who had sneaked into India. He had been booked for being a member of SIMI and was summoned by the police numerous times, including after the 2002-03 blasts in Mumbai. PTI KK NP
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.