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Malegaon:
At last the seven Muslim youth of Malegaon who were granted bail
by the Special MCOCA Court November 05 came out of the jail today
afternoon. While the six accused were released from Mumbai's
Arthur Road Jail, one of the accused was released from Byculla
Jail.
"After hectic activities of more
than a week and thorough checking of the bail documents by the
officials, the Special MCOCA Court finally issued
the order today directing the jail authorities to release the Muslim
men", Advocate Nehal Ansari, one of the lawyers defending the
accused who is in Mumbai, said to ummid.com on phone.
The accused came out of the jail at
around 05:35 late in the afternoon.
"A large number of people including
close relatives and friends, and local leaders from Mumbai and
Malegaon were present when the youth, who were in jail since
2006/07 and were allegedly subjected to inexpressible trauma and
torture during this period, came out of the prison", said Kul
Jamaati Tanzeem leader Maulana Abdul Hameed Azhari who was camping
in Mumbai since last two days.
The Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad
(ATS) after the 2006 Malegaon blast had chargesheeted nine Muslim
youth in the case. However after a long legal battle and
probe-after-probe by the state and federal investigating agencies,
they were granted bail by the Special MCOCA Court on November 05,
2011.
While seven of the nine accused - Shabbir Ah Masihullah, Dr Farogh Iqbal
Makhdoomi, Dr. Salman Farsi, Zahid Ahmed Abdul Majid, Nurulhuda
Shamuddoha, Raees Ah Rajjab Ali and Abrar
Ah Ahmed Saeed - all hailing from Malegaon, were released from the
prisons today, two accused Mohd Ali Shaikh Alam of Mumbai and Asif Basheer Junaid
Khan of Jalgaon could not be released as they are chargesheeted in
the 2006 Mumbai train blast case also.
A series of blasts had struck
Malegaon on September 08, 2006 ahead of Shab-e-Barat, a
Muslim festival when thousands of people were busy offering Friday
prayers at the Hamidia Masjid. Another blast occurred at nearby
Mushawerat chowk few minutes later. 37 people were killed and more
than 300 were injured in the blasts, most of them being children -
all Muslims.
Local Muslims in Malegaon including
the victims since the day one had maintained that the arrested
Muslim men were innocent. They in fact carried one of the longest
campaign in the history of the town demanding arrest of the actual
perpetrators and release of the innocents.
Earlier, the case took a surprising turn when Swami Aseemanand, allegedly involved in Ajmer, Mecca Masjid and
Samjhuata Express blasts, confessed that Hindu extremists, some of
them already wanted in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, were
also behind the 2006 Malegaon blast.
The nine Muslim youth had applied
for the bail in January 2011 after Aseemnanad's confession. It was
however rejected by the court in March.
After clear indications from the
National Investigation Agency (NIA), which was handed over the
re-investigation of the case after the ATS and CBI, that it would
not oppose the bail, the nine accused again filed the bail
application on October 01, 2011.
During the hearing on the bail
application on November 05, 2011 when the NIA told the Special
MCOCA Court that it was not opposed to the release of the accused,
the court order them to be released on the solvency of Rs. 50,000
each.
It took an extensive labour of more
than a week for the advocates and frequent shuttling between
Mumbai and Malegaon to prepare and verify all the bail documents.
The accused are expected to reach Malegaon late in the night.
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