Police cite old case in first arrest

In their appeal before Metropolitan Magistrate G M Patel seeking the remand, the Crime Branch said Haleem was also suspected to be involved in Saturday’s blasts.

The claim came at a time when a number of teams comprising senior police officers from Hyderabad, Lucknow, Rajasthan and Central Forensice Science Laboratory are camping in Ahmedabad in connection with the blasts.

The Crime Branch said Haleem had been involved in terror activities since the Godhra riots and had taken 33 Muslim boys from Ahmedabad for training to a madrasa in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh. Crime Branch officials suspect some of these youths may have been involved in the blasts. Police are also suspecting Haleem’s links with SIMI.

Haleem who appeared before the court denied the charges, saying he was a citizen of India and could not commit such a disgusting act.

A native of Balrampur in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, the 43-year-old has been living with his family in Danilimda since 1988. He deals in scrap.

The Crime Branch says Haleem targeted Muslim boys who became orphans during the Godhra riots and enrolled them at a madrasa in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. Haleem is also accused of waging a war against the state and conspiring to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi, VHP leader Praveen Togadia and leaders of the Bajrang Dal, BJP and Shiv Sena in the state.

His family denies the charges, saying Haleem is being made a scapegoat for the failure of the police to identify the real accused.

His wife Noor Saba told The Indian Express that Haleem was picked up from their Danilimda residence at 8.30 pm on Saturday, within two hours of the blast, and not on Sunday as alleged by the cops. She says that day Haleem had returned home early as one of their sons was not keeping well.

“He had just given medicine to our son when two policemen barged into the house and asked Mufti sahib to accompany them to meet the Danilimda Police Inspector waiting for him outside,” says Saba. Breaking down, she adds: “They said he would be back in half an hour after meeting the ‘Inspector Sahib’ but he did not return till late… It was then I realised that he had been arrested by the police and framed in some case.

Saba also denies that Haleem was a member of SIMI, as do other former activists of the banned outfit. “He was never connected with any organisation other than Ahl-e-Hadis and the police are branding him as a former SIMI activist just to fabricate a case against him,” says Saba.

In fact, it was Haleem’s links with the Al-e-Hadis that brought him in the spotlight during the Gujarat riots. Saba says he earned the ire of the police for helping victims as head of the outfit’s state unit.

While police claim he sent 33 children to UP for terror training, Haleem’s wife claims a Moradabad NGO had urged him to adopt the children orphaned during the riots and provide them education.

Senior advocate Hashim Qureshi, who practises in the Gujarat High Court, also accuses Crime Branch of twisting the case. It was he who filed a habeas corpus petition on Haleem’s detention, and he was set free by court as the police could cite no evidence against him. Still, the chargesheet filed by the Anti-Terrorism Squad, which also named three others, later called him an “absconder”.

Questioning Haleem’s arrest now, Saba asks why if he was an “absconder” he wasn’t picked up any time while leading the namaz or delivering sermons at the Ahl-e-Hadis Jama Masjid.

“Just a week before the rath yatra in Ahmedabad, he (Haleem) had complained against the Danilimda police to the DGP. Why was he not arrested then?” Saba adds.