Day after IM operative gave cops the slip, kin fled Govandi home

After alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorist Afzal Usmani escaped from the court premises on Friday, his relatives in the city — brother Faiz’s wife and son — fled Mumbai fearing police interrogation.

Usmani’s sister-in-law Rubaida and his nephew Azeem lived in Govandi. On learning of Usmani’s escape, they packed their bags and left for Uttar Pradesh early on Saturday morning.

Usmani’s parents, wife and children had moved to Uttar Pradesh in 2008 after his arrest in the Ahmedabad and Surat blast cases of that year.

A neighbour of the Usmanis said that cops used to visit the family’s home at odd hours and would take Faiz for questioning. “Sometimes Faiz used to be away from home for a couple of days. The family was being harassed by policemen,” said the neighbour.

The neighbour, who knows the family well, hastened to add that this was not to declare anyone innocent or guilty. “That’s for the courts to decide. But why harass the family of an accused person for no fault of theirs?” said the neighbour.

Usmani’s brother, Faiz, died of a heart attack while being interrogated by the police in July 2011. After his death, Rubaida and Azeem continued to live in Govandi.

Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, said that the family feared harassment at the hands of the police although it was obvious that Usmani would not come to them or inform them of his whereabouts with the police lying in wait for him.

Not a first for errant sub-inspector
Assistant sub-inspector Sanjay Deshmkh of the Navi Mumbai police, who is one of the two policemen suspended for the escape of alleged terrorist Afzal Usmani, was also part of a police team in which another accused, Devendra Jagtap, had tried unsuccessfully to escape from the court premises.

Jagtap is an accused in the murder case of lawyer Shahid Azmi. An alleged aide of gangster Chhota Rajan, Jagtap had also been accused of firing at extradited gangster Abu Salem in the Taloja jail.