Getting ready for bed on Saturday, the Shaikh household was jolted awake after receiving a call saying their son Riyaz Ali and son-in-law Abdul Latif had been arrested by the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police.
Riyaz and Abdul were being held for allegedly trying to blow up three vital installations in the city.
On Sunday morning, the Koyla Bhuvan Chawl in Ratan Nagar, Dahisar (E), where Riyaz’s father Abu Bakar Shaikh, 60, mother Azida, 55, and brother Khursheed Hussain, 23, live, was surrounded by 150 locals, who came after news of the arrest spread like wildfire in the locality.
Azida, sitting in the 220 square feet rented home, refused to believe that her son and son-in-law could be involved in any crime. Riyaz, she said, was the sole breadwinner of the family.
“Riyaz is being framed. He is a very obedient son and worked at Thakkar Mall. Riyaz’s father and I are vegetable vendors and Riyaz had taken on the responsibility of looking after the family,” Azida said.
She added that Riyaz used to leave home around 9.30am for the mall and return at 10pm. “We cannot believe he could be termed a radical. He loved trendy clothes and perfumes,” she said.
Riyaz’s employer Puneet Prajapati, owner of Rudraksha Shop in Thakkar Mall, said, “Riyaz has been working with me for more than four years now and earned Rs7,000 a month. He was a very good employee and was brilliant at sales talk. I had to let him go during the recession, but took him back later. He left the shop on Friday night and since then his mobile phone has been switched off. Now, I learn that he has been arrested. We never suspected him of anything. Most of the time he was on the phone with his girlfriend.”
Meanwhile, Abdul Latif’s wife is worried about the future. Nusrat Bano, 28, lives in a wooden room structure in a chawl at Bandra (E), with daughters Shifa, 7 and Taiyaba, 2. “We’ve been married eight years and I cannot believe he could be involved in any criminal activity. On Friday, he did not return home and I received a call on Saturday night from the police who told me that Abdul had been arrested,” Bano said.
“The police had come to my residence around 6.30pm on Sunday to search our house. Now, I am very scared,” she added.
“My husband sells television set covers at Manish market. He earns about Rs200 a day, half of which he gives for household expenses. My husband has no police record,” she said.
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