Imagine stepping into a dark cave, thinking you’ll be out in 15 minutes. But when you finally emerge from the cavern, 19 years have lapsed.
Mohammed Sajid Margub Ansari (Sajid), listed as Accused No. 7 in the July 11, 2006 Mumbai train bombings, sits in his modest flat in Mira Road’s Naya Nagar. His breathing is uneven, and his silent pauses are heavy. He had been released on a 40-day parole just before the Bombay High Court’s verdict that cleared the accused. It was as if the last 19 years swam before his eyes all at once. He held his daughter close, but the memory of prison still clung tighter. “When they first brought my child to see me, she cried. She didn’t recognise me,” he whispered.
His mentally and physically draining ordeal began with what seemed like a routine police inquiry. But for Sajid, it marked the start of a long, unforgiving chapter, shadowed by suspicion and social isolation.
In the early 2000s, he had been questioned for distributing pamphlets linked to the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), an organisation banned after the 9/11 attacks. He had also been questioned after the 2003 Mumbai blasts. “Those old enquiries never left me,” he says. “They made me a suspect even when there was nothing to prove.”
Stigmatised by allegations, Sajid was forced to quit his job at a Nariman Point firm. He later found work at a small mobile repair shop in Jogeshwari, trying to solder his life piece-by-piece.
July 11, 2006, began like any other day. Sajid had opened the shop with his employer Bilal, and they were sorting through inventory.
“We heard a loud boom and felt the ground tremble,” he recalls. “There was construction nearby, so I assumed it was something from the site.” But it wasn’t. It was one of seven bomb blasts that tore through Mumbai’s suburban train network, killing 189 and injuring over 800.
The horror sent shockwaves across the country—and would soon shake Sajid’s life to its core. “In that moment, I had no idea those vibrations would shake the very foundation of my life,” he says.
00:00We also know the ATS and the administration and the government also know that the people of the beginning of the day will get rid of the people of the beginning of the day and they will make a big deal.
00:23In 2006, I went to my institute and went to my shop.
00:30When I was in the morning, I was in the shop and I listened to the blasts.
00:37I felt like I was working on construction.
00:42Maybe something happened to the building.
00:45But I didn't know that it was a blast.
00:49Everyone started running around and I went to the shop owner.
00:54I went to the hospital and went to the hospital.
01:00I didn't know that even if I was in the hospital, I was in the hospital.
01:19It happened that I was in the hospital.
01:24In that case, I was also injured in the hospital in the 2001 months.
01:30Because of these cases, I managed to admit,
01:33I constantly call to the police, send them to the hospital and leave.
01:38It happened that I understood,
01:41that I am a friend of mine, because I am a friend of mine, I am not a friend of mine,
01:44I am a friend of mine, and I will leave it.
01:46I have all of them, and I have kept it in legal custody.
01:50And I have to leave my job there, and I have to go back and forth.
01:56This whole corporation I have done, but the whole corporation, which I have made in this case,
02:01was only because of the previous two cases.
02:04And ATS wanted to do that in any way,
02:08There are so many people in the hands that can be put on their hands.
02:11The second thing is that I am an electronics engineer myself.
02:15And there are such a person who can tell me about this,
02:20that he was involved in making a timer and electronic things.
02:24That's why I liked this case.
02:28My education was also made for me.
02:38At that time, it felt like our world would end.
02:45But we also knew that we are on the right, on the right.
02:51And one day, we are going to come to our own without-gunning.
02:56Some people who are being blasted by the crime branch,
02:59and they arrested the crime branch.
03:01And in that case, three people have confessed that
03:07the crime branch said that we had to come to our own.
03:12This is on record.
03:14This is all we have produced in our case.
03:17But the trial court didn't have to come to this.
03:19High court didn't have to come to this.
03:20High court didn't have to come to this.
03:21And in the high court, it was clear that we were involved.
03:24The trial court was getting and so,
03:25and as I'm there,
03:27the trial court was to stay and we're gonna be
03:28in the high court.
03:29When I was arrested, my age was 29 years.
03:32I have to say 48 years ago.
03:34So this year, I grew up with my kids.
03:36Now I've died when I took my life to study.
03:38But in jail, I did some other studies,
03:40I did political science and then it was also the LLB.
03:41But in jail, I did some studies in political science, and then I also did LLB.
03:49LLB, I was doing for my defense, actually.
03:53And also, because of that, there is something that I can say, because I don't get help.
04:01Many people say that we are so happy that we have to meet our people.
04:06We have got a NGO and we have got legal help.
04:10But we don't have all of them.
04:12So I would like to say that we can help our people.
04:17I started to do two years ago.
04:19I would like to continue to do something in the law field.
04:24But still, I don't give my wife to my family.
