“We were treated like criminals and terrorists in the jail. We were tortured to the extent that we might have gone mad. We had been provided only one pot to eat, drink and wash. We were kept in underwears for almost four months. Everybody in the jail used to call us ‘blast waale’, despite the fact that no charge of Jaipur blasts was framed against us,” narrated Suhail Modi, one of the 10 victims of the communal mindset of Rajasthan ATS released from jail on Dec. 9. A number of Muslim youth were arrested following the serial bomb blasts in Jaipur on May 13, 2008. When Muslim and Human Rights organisations exerted pressure, the ATS released most of them. Then they framed false charges of indulging in SIMI activities against 14 persons including 10 from Kota, 1 from Baran, 2 from Jodhpur and 1 from Jhalawar.
These innocent people spent almost three years and a half in jail for committing no crime. They faced severe torture, humiliation, defamation in society, destruction of their career and occupations and a wound on their hearts forever.
All 14 were acquitted by the Rajasthan High Court on Dec. 9 this year. Ten of them were released from jail the same day, while three are still facing other charges in Gujarat and a trial is going on against them and one Inamur Rahman was detained further as a case is pending against him in Madhya Pradesh.