‘His daughter has grown up without her father’: Families of men acquitted in 2006 Mumbai train blasts case recount years of struggle

Dr Tanveer Ansari, who was serving life imprisonment, was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti Terorrist Squad (ATS) in 2006 when his daughter was six months old, said his brother Maqsood. Tanveer, a resident of Agripada, had completed his Unani medicine from Nagpur and was working at a hospital at the time of his arrest, with the ATS claiming that he had surveyed the trains for the blasts.

“He was at a clinic and was picked up by the police without any proof. We were informed two days later, and my father went to meet him and found that he had been brutally assaulted and tortured. My father was deeply affected by it. My mother passed away two years later and Tanveer was permitted to visit only for half an hour. We continued to fight for justice, knowing that he and others booked in the case were innocent,” Maqsood said.

He added that their father also passed away in 2018, awaiting Tanveer’s return. “My father required surgery, but Tanveer was not granted parole. His daughter has grown up without her father,” Maqsood said.

Maqsood stated that over the years, the families of the convicted men have remained each other’s hope, staying in touch through a group called Innocent Families.

Besides Tanveer Ansari, the others awarded life imprisonment in 2015 are Mohammed Majid Mohammed Shafi, Shaikh Mohammed Ali Alam Shaikh, Mohammed Sajid Margub Ansari, Muzammil Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Suhail Mehmood Shaikh, and Zameer Ahmed Latifur Rehman Shaikh.

Kamal Ahmed Mohd Vakil Ansari from Bihar, Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh from Mumbai, Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddique from Thane, Naveed Hussain Khan from Secunderabad, and Asif Khan Bashir Khan from Jalgaon in Maharashtra were awarded the death penalty in the case. Kamal Ahmed Mohd Vakil Ansari died in prison in 2021.

One of the accused, Wahid Shaikh, was acquitted by the trial court in 2015 after spending nine years in jail. He continued to advocate for justice on behalf of the others. “From the first day, we have been saying that the whole case is bogus and that wrong persons were arrested and tortured into giving false confessions. Even after I was acquitted, the fight continued to ensure that the wrongly arrested are released. We have been saying that justice will not be done to the victims till the correct perpetrators are arrested,” Shaikh said.

He also founded an organisation called the Innocence Network, not only for this case, but also to provide legal services and assistance to those who have been wrongly arrested. During a programme organised to mark the 19th anniversary of the blasts, on July 11, Shaikh said families spoke of the impact the wrongful arrests had on their lives, including facing poverty with the sole breadwinner arrested, and loss of loved ones during the pendency of the trial and later the appeal.