Mumabi, Jan 27: Investigators claimed that a curious change of heart led Swami Aseemanand, 58, arrested for his involvement in the Mecca Masjid blast, to reveal details of the conspiracy behind five major blasts, including the February 2007 attack on the Samjhauta Express.
Key to this, senior officials said, was Aseemanand’s interaction with a 21-year-old he met in Chanchalaguda Jail, Hyderabad, during his judicial custody in November-December last year.
The man, Sheikh Abdul Khaleem, was among 15 arrested earlier by the Hyderabad Police investigating the Mecca Masjid blast. On November 13, 2008, The Indian Express reported that an Andhra Pradesh government panel had confirmed that these Muslim men, picked up for the Mecca Masjid blast of May 18, 2007 and the Lumbini Park and Gokul Chaat House blasts of August 26 that year, were tortured for as long as six months.
Khaleem, 19 then and working as a lab technician, was arrested soon after. According to the panel’s report, he was blindfolded and taken to an unknown destination, beaten on the soles of his feet, stripped and then administered shots through a “small machine”.
Aseemanand was arrested on November 19 last year from Haridwar in Uttarakhand, after he had changed location over 30 times, travelling across several states over two years to evade arrest. According to investigators, he was “not cooperating” in the initial days after his arrest.
Though he was in the CBI’s custody for a few days in between, he spent most of the period from November 20 to December 24 in judicial custody, in solitary confinement in Chanchalaguda Jail where nearly 70 per cent of the inmates are Muslim. It was here that Aseemanand came in touch with Khaleem.
Blast-accused Muslim praises Aseemanand, calls him 'great'
Woh bahut great hain. It takes a lot of courage to accept your mistakes, admit guilt. Not everyone can do it. Even when we were in jail together, I felt he was a good man,” Abdul Kaleem, 23, a Mecca Masjid blast accused, said on Monday following his release on bail.
He was referring to Swami Aseemanand who is reported to have confessed to his involvement in the Mecca Masjid blast of May 18, 2007. Kaleem was arrested as a suspect in the case and spent one-and-a-half-years in jail before all charges were quashed by a court and set free.
On October 12, 2010, Kaleem was arrested again at Cherlapally Jail on charges of trying to pass a mobile phone to his jailed brother Abdul Khaja alias Amjad, an alleged terror operative who was arrested from Chennai in January 2010.
“The first time I saw Aseemanand was about a month-and- a-half ago and I was not aware why he was in jail. He was in the cell next to mine, we started talking on and off when we came across each other in the courtyard. A few days later, I came to know that he was arrested in the Mecca Masjid blast case,” Kaleem says.
Key to this, senior officials said, was Aseemanand’s interaction with a 21-year-old he met in Chanchalaguda Jail, Hyderabad, during his judicial custody in November-December last year.
The man, Sheikh Abdul Khaleem, was among 15 arrested earlier by the Hyderabad Police investigating the Mecca Masjid blast. On November 13, 2008, The Indian Express reported that an Andhra Pradesh government panel had confirmed that these Muslim men, picked up for the Mecca Masjid blast of May 18, 2007 and the Lumbini Park and Gokul Chaat House blasts of August 26 that year, were tortured for as long as six months.
Khaleem, 19 then and working as a lab technician, was arrested soon after. According to the panel’s report, he was blindfolded and taken to an unknown destination, beaten on the soles of his feet, stripped and then administered shots through a “small machine”.
Aseemanand was arrested on November 19 last year from Haridwar in Uttarakhand, after he had changed location over 30 times, travelling across several states over two years to evade arrest. According to investigators, he was “not cooperating” in the initial days after his arrest.
Though he was in the CBI’s custody for a few days in between, he spent most of the period from November 20 to December 24 in judicial custody, in solitary confinement in Chanchalaguda Jail where nearly 70 per cent of the inmates are Muslim. It was here that Aseemanand came in touch with Khaleem.
Blast-accused Muslim praises Aseemanand, calls him 'great'
Woh bahut great hain. It takes a lot of courage to accept your mistakes, admit guilt. Not everyone can do it. Even when we were in jail together, I felt he was a good man,” Abdul Kaleem, 23, a Mecca Masjid blast accused, said on Monday following his release on bail.
He was referring to Swami Aseemanand who is reported to have confessed to his involvement in the Mecca Masjid blast of May 18, 2007. Kaleem was arrested as a suspect in the case and spent one-and-a-half-years in jail before all charges were quashed by a court and set free.
On October 12, 2010, Kaleem was arrested again at Cherlapally Jail on charges of trying to pass a mobile phone to his jailed brother Abdul Khaja alias Amjad, an alleged terror operative who was arrested from Chennai in January 2010.
“The first time I saw Aseemanand was about a month-and- a-half ago and I was not aware why he was in jail. He was in the cell next to mine, we started talking on and off when we came across each other in the courtyard. A few days later, I came to know that he was arrested in the Mecca Masjid blast case,” Kaleem says.
