A Muslim man who was wrongly sentenced to death in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts walks free after nearly two decades, as the Bombay High Court finally rules he is innocent.
NEW DELHI/ JALGAON, MAHARASHTRA — The small house of Asif Bashir Khan in the Mehrun area of Jalgaon was filled with tears of joy, heartfelt prayers, and long-awaited relief on Sunday. After 19 years of being wrongly labelled a terrorist and sentenced to death, the Bombay High Court finally declared him innocent in the 2006 Mumbai train blast case.
The moment the news broke, Asif’s wife handed a piece of sweet to her mother-in-law, Hasna Bano. Family members hugged one another, recited verses of thankfulness, and wept for both justice and the years lost.
“I always knew my son was innocent,” said Hasna Bano, the elderly mother of Asif. “We waited and waited… justice came, but very late. When they took him away, his children were so young. His wife stitched clothes to feed the family and raise the children. My husband died waiting for Asif’s release. He didn’t even get to see his son one last time.”
Asif Bashir Khan, a civil engineer by profession, was arrested on 17 October 2006 by Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) from Belgaum. He had been sent there by the construction company where he worked in Lokhandwala, Mumbai.
He was just 33 years old when he was accused of planting bombs in local trains that killed over 180 people. The Mumbai Sessions Court had sentenced him and four others to death based on what has now been proven to be weak and faulty evidence.
In total, three separate terror cases were slapped on him:
Being a member of the banned organisation SIMI (from which he was acquitted in 2001),
Involvement in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts (now cleared), and
The 2006 Malegaon blast case (from which he was also acquitted).
Despite the complete lack of solid evidence, the police continued to frame him and others like him—Muslim men who were easy targets. Years passed, and yet no real investigation was done to find the actual culprits. The damage was already done. Families were broken. Careers were crushed. Childhoods were stolen.
Speaking to reporters, Asif’s younger daughter, Naseeba Asif Khan, a BUMS student, said: “We are happy that justice has finally come, but it came too late. We missed Abu (father) at every stage of life—school events, weddings, illness… everything. We used to cry silently, but we never stopped believing he would come back.”
Naseeba, just a toddler when her father was arrested, could hardly recall his voice during her growing-up years. “Now he will finally be home, but what about the time that can never return?” she said quietly, wiping her tears.
Activist Anis Shah, who helped the family throughout the case, pointed out how the court was finally convinced that Asif could not have committed the crime. “The police said he planted the bombs, but our lawyers, from Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, showed the court that Asif was not even present between Andheri and Virar at the time of the attacks,” said Shah.
The High Court accepted the proof, including his work records and absence from the blast sites. Still, it took 19 years to correct this blunder.
“It was a case of blind hatred and broken justice,” Shah added. “These men were punished because they were Muslim. That’s the truth.”
Asif’s old friend and co-accused, Parvez Khan, who was also wrongly charged for being part of SIMI, said, “We have received legal justice, but we still suffer in society. People still look at us with suspicion. They don’t know we were innocent all along.”
He added, “They destroyed our names. They took our jobs, families, and dreams. Now that we’re proven innocent, who will give us back the years we lost?”
This case is not the first where Muslim youth have been falsely framed in terror cases. Over the years, scores of Muslim men have been picked up, tortured, jailed without trial, and later acquitted after long legal battles. Yet the damage done to their lives often goes unspoken.
Legal experts and human rights groups have repeatedly criticised the pattern in which Muslim names surface quickly after any blast, without proper investigation.
“Muslims are made scapegoats in every such case,” said Advocate Farid Shaikh, one of the defence lawyers. “There is pressure to show results. What better way than to arrest a few Muslim men and say the case is solved?”
He asked, “Now that the court has ruled Asif innocent, will anyone punish those officers who falsely accused him? Will anyone apologise for the life they stole from him?”
Despite the seriousness of the issue, no senior political leader has offered an apology or even spoken about the injustice faced by Asif and the other acquitted men.
“They called us terrorists before the trial even began. Our photos were on news channels. Our names were printed in newspapers. But today, when we are proven innocent, no one prints our photos again with the word ‘Innocent’,” said Parvez Khan bitterly.
There is a deafening silence in the corridors of power. Muslim groups have long demanded a special law to punish investigating officers who deliberately file fake cases.
“Until such officers are held responsible, this will keep happening,” said human rights campaigner Arshad Khan. “Being a Muslim in India means you can be arrested anytime, with or without reason.”
The family of Asif Bashir Khan plans to file a case for compensation. But no amount of money can return the lost years, the father’s funeral Asif missed, or the pain his children went through in silence.
