Ten months after being arrested as a ‘terrorist’ for his
alleged role in the 2002 bomb blast case in Mumbai, a techie from
Hyderabad has been cleared of all charges. The Mumbai police have
admitted to the special court here that they found ‘no evidence’ against
him.
Much before his arrest, for 10 years, the
police had been claiming that Taj-ul Kazi Siddiqui, 40, was the main
conspirator of the 2002 Ghatkopar bus blast case.
In a charge sheet filed in 2003, he was named one of the 29 accused and was shown as wanted.
On
November, 2012, a team of Mumbai police arrested him from Hyderabad and
booked him under stringent sections of the Prevention of Terrorism Act
(POTA) and various sections of the Indian Penal Code. He was later
released on bail in April, 2013.
Settled in Hyderabad
for almost a decade, Mr. Siddiqui was a senior employee with HCL. He
was immediately terminated from his job, for being ‘allegedly’ involved
in ‘terror’ activities. For 10 months, his family repeatedly claimed
that he was innocent.
No evidence
On August 1, Mumbai police informed the special POTA court that they found ‘no evidence’ against Mr. Siddiqui.
“He
was not found involved in the case after investigation of related
papers. After studying the mirror image of his laptop’s hard disk, no
evidence of his involvement in the case or objectionable matter was
found,” said the application submitted by the police. It also said that
his e-mail accounts were checked and no evidence linking him to the
blast case was found.
“Since no evidence against the
accused has been found, it will be appropriate to discharge him from the
case,” said the application.
Following the submission by the Mumbai police, special judge P.K. Chavan discharged him on August 8.
“He
lost his job and reputation after the arrest. The police thought he was
the prime accused, but could not gather a single piece of evidence
against him. After causing such damage to his life, they finally admit
that there is no evidence against him,” said Rebecca Gonsalves, Mr.
Siddiqui’s lawyer.
Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/hyderabad-techie-cleared-of-terror-charges-10-months-after-arrest/article5017380.ece
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