Acquitted Faheem Ansari to move court against Arthur Road jail

It’s been three weeks since additional principal judge ML Tahaliyani acquitted Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed of playing a role in the 26/11 attack, but the two are still lodged in the Arthur road jail.

They were to be moved to a jail in Uttar Pradesh (UP) after the acquittal.

Ansari will move court on Monday saying the jail authorities are acting in contempt of the court’s order. The court, on the day of his acquittal, May 3, ordered Ansari and his co-accused Ahmed to be set free unless they faced other trials. Both have cases registered against them in UP in the terror attack on the Central Reserve Police Force camp at Rampur on December 31, 2007.

“The jail authorities are acting in contempt of the order. Ansari should have been sent to Bareilly jail by now,” said advocate Sandeep Maurya. Maurya and Ansari’s wife Yasmeen had come to the sessions court to submit the application. Judge Tahaliyani asked them to file the case on Monday.

“Everyday, my husband asks jail officers when he would be sent to Rampur. But the officers just keep making excuses. He wants the Rampur trial to start soon so that he is out of jail forever,” Yasmeen said.

But Arthur road jail superintendent Rajendra Dhamne said: “We will transfer them (Ansari and Ahmed) when the UP police sends guards here.”

In the 26/11 case, Ansari was accused of conducting a recce of Mumbai and drawing a detailed map, which was sent to the Lashkar-e-Taiba. The prosecution said this map was used by the 10 gunmen who attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008.