Kin of accused say they're innocent

Even as principal sessions judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi was pronouncing the judgment in the gang rape case in a packed courtroom, one of the accused, Salim Ansari, muttered something frantically and incoherently to himself.

Minutes after the judge held all the five accused guilty, the accused and their family members seemed to be in a state of shock, as if letting the words sink in.

Later, outside the courtroom, relatives of the accused claimed that the accused were innocent and accused the police of falsely implicating them. They said that the reason the court had convicted them was that the victim was a mediaperson.

Chandbibi, mother of convict Kasim Shaikh alias Bangali, told dna: "I know for a fact that my son is innocent. Even today I asked him if he had committed the crime and he swore by that he was in no way associated with the crime."

Even as his mother spoke to a volley of mediapersons, Kasim sat beside her, head buried in her lap, one hand held by a cop.

In the same vein, the mother admitted that Kasim had earlier been arrested for stealing scrap material. "But this time around, I know that my son is innocent. We are poor people and can't raise a voice against the mighty, that's the reason we are being victimised," she claimed.

As she broke down intermittently, Kasim told his mother to be strong and not to cry.

Nasreen, the wife of convict Ashfaq Shaikh, was in tears, worrying about her future. "Today, I'm feeling completely lost. I have no idea what fate has in store for me and my children now..." Nasreen said, wiping her tears to the dupatta (veil) over her head.

"When Ashfaq was arrested, neighbours taunted me for being married to a rapist. Such was the harassment that I have now moved to my mother's home where no one knows about my background," said Nasreen, adding that her husband too had told that he was innocent.

She said he had admitted that he knew the accused and was their friend but he had not committed the heinous crime. "Now, if Ashfaq goes to jail for the rest of his life, how will I bring up my children?"

When dna asked them if they would approach the high court to appeal against the trial court's order, they replied in the negative. "We have no money left for any more court case," said Chandbibi.