Two lost decades, but a salve of vindication

Four months after seven blasts ripped through the lifelines of Mumbai and killed 189 people on July 11, 2006, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested 13 people. One was acquitted by a local court in 2015 after nearly nine years in prison. The other 12 — five of whom were on the death row — were acquitted by the Bombay high court on Monday. HT spoke to one of those acquitted and the families of some others.

- Mayura Janwalkar

'I don't think anyone will give me a job'

Mohammad Sajid Magrub Ansari said he was still coming to terms with the verdict. “I have no words right now to describe how I feel. Everyone at home is overjoyed and we have been having sweets all morning. It hasn't fully sunk in, I am feeling so many emotions simultaneously,” he said.

Sajid was released on parole on July 1 and was slated to go back to the Nashik prison on August 10.

The 48-year-old was accused of making the explosive device that was detonated at Borivali station on July 11, 2006, a charge he denied. Before his arrest, he ran a mobile repair shop at Jogeshwari, and said he knows nothing about the new smart phones that are now in use. He learnt how to use WhatsApp only after coming out on parole earlier this month. “How can I go back to doing mobile repair work? I have been set back by almost 20 years. Despite my acquittal, I don’t think anyone will give me a job,” he said.

In prison, however, Sajid completed the first year of his law degree, and is now in his second year. He has been helping prison inmates with filing bail and parole applications.

'When asked where my father is, I'd say - not here'

Mubashshara Majid was one month old when her father, Mohammad Majid Mohamad Shafi was arrested.

She was raised by her mother, Farzana Yasmin, in Kolkata's Sealdah. “I grew up without my father, but my mother never hid anything about him from me. She always believed he was innocent and that he would come back home one day,” Mubashshara, now 19, told HT.

In school, she could not avoid answering questions about her absent father, as her mother was the only parent who turned up at parent-teacher meetings. “Whenever someone asked me where my father is, I'd say he does not live here. If they asked me where he lives, I'd say Mumbai,” said Mubashshara.