Mecca Masjid blast suspect Abdul Kaleem gets bail in another case

Abdul Kaleem, a suspect in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast case, was today granted bail by a court in Hyderabad in a case of aiding a prisoner.

Kaleem was picked up by police when his name cropped up during investigation of the Mecca Masjid case. However, he was let off later.

He was arrested on January 25 last year by Kushaiguda police, under Hyberabad Commissionerate, on charges of supplying cell phones to some of his friends in Chanchalguda jail and booked under section 448 (punishment for trespass), 130 (aiding escape of, rescuing or harbouring such prisoner), police said.

He was sent to judicial custody and since then was lodged in Chanchalguda jail.

The additional district magistrate today granted him bail in the case.

After his arrest in connection with the blast, Swami Aseemanand said that right-wing groups that were behind the Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad in May 2007 and also the Ajmer, Malegaon and Samjhauta blasts.

According to Aseemanand, it was his introduction to Kaleem that provoked both reflection and regret.

"We (Aseemamand and Kaleem) used to sit together and talk. I told him that in the same case, for which you are here, I have spent one and a half years in jail and my education was disrupted and life spoilt. I told him all that," Kaleem said after his release.

Nine people were killed during the blast at the historic masjid here on May 18, 2007.