Almost seven years after a bomb had rocked historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad killing nine people, and five years after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) exposed the involvement of certain Hindu fundamentalists in the incident, a court in Hyderabad acquitted four persons charged with criminal conspiracy and various other offences in connection with the blast.
Even as the CBI arrested lokesh Sharma, Devender Gupta and an RSS activist Swamy Aseemanand for conspiring and carrying out the blast in the mosque during Friday congregation on May 18, 2007, four locals Shoaib Jagirdar, Abdul Nayeem, Syed Imran and Rafiuddin continued to face the court case which finally concluded on Thursday with the 4th Additional Metropolitan Session Judge acquitting them due to insufficient evidence.
Shoaib Jagirdar, who hails form Jalna was arrested by a Special Investigation Team of Hyderabad police on June 26, 2007. Subsequently it arrested his cousin Imran and friends Nayeem and Rafi Ahmad and charged them with criminal conspiracy, waging war against the State and securing a fake passport. Police had also charged Shoaib with helping Nayeem, who was described as the activist of lashkar-e-Taiba.
However, police could not produce any evidence to prove the charges. The police had also charged that Nayeem had video graphed key installations and places in the city to help in terrorist attacks. The police had also told the court that it had arrested Nayeem from Indo-Bangladesh border. Another sensational allegation was that the Nayeem and Shoaib had brought a bag to Hyderabad and it was suspected to be loaded with the explosives. During the investigations the accused were also subjected to Narco analysis at a Bangalore laboratory.
Defendants on the other hand alleged that the police investigation team led by inspector Ramachandran had subjected the accused to third degree torture to secure a confession from them.
This is the second group of accused who have been acquitted in this case by the court. Earlier, another group of 26 Muslim youth form Hyderabad were also acquitted. They were among the 100 youths arrested by the Hyderabad city police soon after the blast and subjected to torture to force a confession. A charge sheet was filed against 26 of them who were later acquitted by the court.
The indiscriminate arrests by the Hyderabad city police and torture had created a public uproar in forcing the State Government to hand over the investigation to the CBI which with the help of Rajasthan police unearthed the real conspirators and perpetrators of the attack.
After it was established that the local youth were falsely implicated in the case and branded as terrorists and destroying their lives with a social stigma, the National Commission for Minorities had recommended Andhra Pradesh Government to pay compensation to the affected persons.
With several Hindu activists in jail, National Investigation Team was still looking for a couple of others. The then Inspector Task Force M Ramchandran who was attached to SIC filed a complaint with the Central Crime Station on which a case was registered against Jagirdar, Abdul Nayeem and Mohammed Imran Khan and Syed Imran, an engineering student who was related to Jagirdar. The case was booked under sections 120(B) (Criminal Conspiracy), 125 (Waging war against the Government), 126 (Committing depredation on territories) and 12(1) (b) of Indian Passport Act, 1967.
The SIC also claimed that Nayeem during his stay videographed important installations and places in Hyderabad. The contents in the bag Nayeem was carrying were suspicious. The SIC later arrested Imran, an engineering student, on the charges of helping Jagirdar with logistics. Imran's associate Rafiuddin Ahmed was also arrested.