A Maharashtra court on Monday discharged all 9 Muslims, who were accused in Malegaon blasts, that killed 37 people in 2006.
For 10 years they had to live with the stigma of terrorism, with one having died in an accident during the trial period.
Express Photos.
The nine men are Noorul Huda, Shabbir Ahmed, Raees Ahmed, Salman Farsi, Farogh Magdumi, Shaikh Mohammed Ali, Asif Khan, Mohammed Zahid and Abrar Ahmed.
They were arrested in 2006 for the Malegaon blasts that killed 37 and injured over 100. In November 2011, they were granted bail.
While discharging eight of the accused in the September 2006 Malegaon blasts case, sessions judge V V Patil dismissed the theory of state’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) as “not digestible” in his 33-page order.
“ATS officers, merely on suspicion, projected the accused (No 1 to 9) as the authors of the bomb blasts. It appears to me that as the accused were having criminal antecedents, they became scapegoats at the hands of the ATS,” Indian Express quoted the order.
The acquittal of nine Muslim men has prompted many to ask who the system should hold responsible for inflicting pain on innocent members of the minority community for 10 years.
While many hailed this as a victory for Indian judicial system , others wondered why there was no outrage on social media.
Source: jantakareporter.com
