Hyderabad, January 18: A young Muslim Abdul Kaleem, who was picked up on terror charges, earned the blessings of a co-accused swami and coaxed out a confession that turned the scanner on Hindu terror, finally walked free on bail today.
Officials in Hyderabad jail said Abdul Kaleem’s bail order had been signed last week but they were not being able to release him because of some technicalities.
The 21-year-old former law student was one of the first suspects to be picked up in connection with the May 2007 Makkah Masjid blast after police concluded it was a Harkat-ul-Jihadi operation.
Locked up in Chanchalguda district jail in Hyderabad, the former salesman in a mobile phone showroom first met Swami Aseemanand after the Sangh activist’s arrest in November 2010 in connection with the mosque explosion and the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombing.
As Kaleem helped the much older Swami by bringing him food and water, the two men became close. Soon, the 59-year-old Aseemanand opened up.
“During my stay in jail, Kaleem helped me a lot and used to serve me by bringing water, food, etc… and my conscience asked me to do prayschit (penance) by making a confessional statement so that the real culprits can be punished…” Aseemanand had said in his confessional statement before a magistrate in Delhi on December 18 last year.
In the 42-page statement, Aseemanand, originally Naba Kumar Sarkar from Bengal, said he and other Hindu extremists were behind various terror acts in the country, including the Ajmer, Makkah Masjid, Samjhauta Express and Malegaon blasts.
Among those he named were Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Indresh Kumar, arrested sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, murdered Sangh man Sunil Joshi and dismissed army officer Lt Col Prasad Purohit.
The swami’s confession prompted a Maharashtra court to order a reinvestigation into the 2006 explosions that targeted a mosque in Muslim-majority Malegaon and led to the arrest of nine suspects.
Sources said the investigation would logically extend to the Malegaon 2008 blast as the swami had named Pragya Singh Thakur and Purohit as the prime conspirators in the second explosion in the Maharashtra town.
Advocate Lateef Mohammad Khan, who has been fighting Kaleem’s case, praised Aseemanand’s gesture and said the truth had finally come out.
“My brother said he told the swami to apologise to everyone,” Kaleem’s sister Shenaz Parveen said.
“Swami Aseemanand’s confession has proved that the arrest of 32 Muslim men for the Makkah Masjid and Malegaon blasts was wrong,” said Kaleem’s mother Lateefa Begum.
At Saleemnagar, in Hyderabad old city, the relief among residents was palpable.
After his arrest, Kaleem had spent nearly two years in jail before being released. Picked up and tortured in custody, Kaleem was acquitted after none of the charges against him could be proved.
But he was arrested once again two months ago when he went to meet his brother Khaja in jail on the charge that he had given him a cellphone.
Khaja is still in jail on the suspicion of being a Lashkar operative.
–PTI