Mumbai has no roof to offer Aurangabad arms haul accused
Out on bail, four of them outside Arthur Road jail. (Express Photo by: Prashant Nadkar)
The biggest challenge is to find an answer to the question ‘where to sleep’,” says Javed Majeed Ansari.
Along with 21 others, Javed is required to attend daily hearings in Mumbai in the Aurangabad arms haul case of 2006. Seven of the accused are out on bail, but bearing the terror taint, six, including Javed, have found it impossible to find shelter in the city of over 12.5 million.
Riyaz Ahmed Ansari, 44, has stayed in at least 25 different mosques, never spending more than a night or two in any.
In May 2006, a Maharashtra ATS team had intercepted two vehicles on a highway near Aurangabad, seizing 30 kg RDX, 10 AK-47 assault rifles and 3,200 bullets.
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While Javed (37), Riyaz and Mushtaque Ahmed (32) had been arrested from Malegaon, Akil Momin (34), Shaikh Vikar (32) and Abdul Samad (34) had been picked up from Beed.
Javed was the first among the Malegaon residents to get bail, in 2013. Riyaz got bail on January 9, 2014.
The six begin each day around 5 am with prayers. By around 10 am, they are at a tea stall near the special MCOCA court on Arthur Road in central Mumbai where the case is being heard. After a quick tea, they are inside court by 11 am. The proceedings last till 5 pm.
The after-court hours are spent either hanging around public places or at the Jamiat Ulama-E-Maharashtra’s legal aid office on Mohammed Ali Road.
“We have lunch together outside the courtroom on a bench. After the proceedings, we sit at bus-stops for a bit, go for our evening prayers, and then, after dinner, go to a masjid, a cheap lodge or the Jamiat’s office for the night,” says Riyaz.
Gulzar Ahmed Azmi, the secretary of the Jamiat’s legal cell, says they are helpless. “We can’t provide shelter because we don’t have space,” Azmi says.
After being released on bail, Riyaz had secured exemption from being present at hearings and spent a week in Malegaon. When he came to Mumbai, he spent the first few days at the Jamiat’s office, after which the search for living quarters began.
Riyaz, who has studied up to Class X and used to print visiting cards for a living, completed a course in disaster management and his BA first year while in jail.
He first went to look for a room in Kurla, and was told to produce an ID card. “I said I was in the city seeking a job. The estate agent immediately asked me if I had been in jail. I could not deny it,” Riyaz says.
He adds that when he asked the agent where he might find a room, the agent said, ‘You will not get a room here or anywhere else in the area’. “That is one memory that will stay with me,” Riyaz says.
He then went looking for rooms in Mumbra, at least four times, without success. He lied that he was a peon at a school, but it did not work. As a last resort, he turned to lodges that demanded Rs 100-150 for a bed at night, but that was too steep a price to be a regular option.
Riyaz says his total daily budget is Rs 80, including meals. “I try and limit myself to eating once a day.”
He finally took to travelling home to Malegaon everyday after the hearings, and later staying at mosques.
As for non-Muslim-dominated areas, Riyaz says, “it is silly” for them to try their luck there.
Javed used to work at a power loom in Malegaon. Accused of transporting ammunition in the case, he dreads the police verification process while looking for a room.
Most landlords or agents promise to call back but never do, says Javed, the father of one. “Railway station lodges are easy to get, but you cannot stay for long. My father handles my expenses, I cannot burden him more.”
Since he came out on bail in March 2014, Mushtaque hasn’t looked for a room; he says he can’t afford it. So, he heads home to Malegaon at every chance.
The former second-hand clothes dealer adds that the days the hearings get adjourned early are a problem. “We kill time buying things for people in jail or loitering around.” Still, he admits, “freedom is like gold”.
Vikar’s parents are lecturers and he completed a degree in computers and his Masters in Sociology while in prison. While releasing him on bail in October last year, the court had observed that there were reasonable grounds to believe he was innocent.
Vikar too hasn’t tried looking for a room. “A lodge is good and I do not plan to stay in the city after the trial,” he says.
Shahid Nadeem Ansari, their lawyer from the Jamiat, explains that living together would not be advisable.”They are in for conspiracy,” he points out.
Ansari’s office has a long table with a few plastic chairs. At a time, two of them come in around 8 pm and clear the area to sleep.
Every weekend, the six take an evening train to their respective home towns.
Mumbai has lost its charm for all six. Noting that the court wouldn’t have given them bail if it thought they were directly involved, Riyaz says, “Life outside the jail was a lot more difficult than inside it.”
Source:: Indian Express
