Year after, Afroz family not too far from 9/11

Maybe that’s why he shifted house to Musafirkhana, Crawford Market, after release from custody in April. His family, however, has stayed put at Cheetah Camp. His 55-year-old mother, Anifa Bi, misses her youngest son. But now ‘‘I am scared to keep him at home. What if the police come back and take him? We won’t be able to save him.’’

Afroz still visits his home once a week. And to give him back the ‘‘normal life’’ he craves, Anifa Bi plans to get him married to a girl from Pune. ‘‘They said they need six months. I want my son to settle down and work.’’

Afroz too is desperate to put his past behind him. ‘‘About two months ago, I stopped going to police headquarters for daily haazri. They would make me wait from morning till evening. Now, I have started helping my brother with export business.’’ But doesn’t he still run up against meaning glances and loaded questions. ‘‘The press wrote all about it…There’s nothing people need to ask.’’

The scandal, however, has taken its toll. His family is longer on good terms with relatives in Gujarat. ‘‘Looks like it (the accusation) will always remain with me,’’ Afroz said.

Like some of his relatives, Afroz too has changed — from a carefree youth to a sober man. Mumbai Aman Committee president Mohammed Fareed Sheikh, with whom Afroz now lives, said: ‘‘Afroz is my brother’s friend. Earlier, he used to come here to buy jeans or a cellphone, the typical hero-type, to impress girls. Now he has become a little mature.’’

Afroz sometimes tries to get back a little of his old life. A keen cricketer, he says he recently smacked a ball around in pouring rain at Anjuman-i-Islam School. Last year, a jail superintendent had told him: “Tu to gaya das saal ke liye (You’ll be in jail for the next 10 years).” Now that he is not, Afroz is trying to forget the close shave.