Justice delayed is justice denied; Kaleem & Zahed lost 12 crucial years of their life in jail

Hyderabad: Recalling the ordeal after her son’s arrest Khairunnisa Begum, mother of Mohammed Kaleem said that following Kaleem’s arrest in 2005 in the Task Force bomb blast case, the family was literally thrown out of their rented house. Unable to get another house they somehow managed to stay in a nephew’s residence in LB Nagar. The incident broke the whole family. The family was abandoned by close family circles as well, recalled Khairunnisa. After his arrest Kaleem had to leave his newly wed wife whom he had married a month ago. Though Kaleem had a love marriage with his wife, realising that he was stuck in jail, he told his wife to remarry. Now his wife is married to someone else.

Kaleem was then 23 and working as welder. A resident of Amberpet, Kaleem was picked up by Task Force sleuths when he was on his way to Hyderabad along with his family. When the police intercepted their vehicle and took him away, they couldn’t understand the reason behind his arrest. Two days later he was announced to have been arrested in the Task Force blast case, recalled a relative.

Kaleem was allegedly tortured in police custody to the extent that he cannot walk properly.

The family of Mohammed Abdul Zahed also went through a similar ordeal. He was falsely implicated in the case without any evidence. Zahed was just 22 when he was arrested. He was not even married and lost a crucial period of his whole life. Zahed’s septuagenarian parents underwent a traumatic 12 years. They were hardly able to meet their son, as he was constantly moved to jails across erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.
His father, who was a teacher, is 87 years old and mother, 82. Zahed was arrested because he was the brother of once most-wanted HuJI terror suspect late Shahid Bilal.

Though the court has acquitted them in the case, both the young men lost 12 years crucial years of their life in jail.