UP blasts: mistaken identity kept him in jail for 20 days

Aftab Alam Ansari (26) is a free man now. But he doubts if he will forget his 20 days of incarceration.

Aftab Alam Ansari (26) is a free man now. But he doubts if he will forget his 20 days of incarceration. The UP Police had arrested the Kolkata electricity corporation employee on December 29, as a “suspected terrorist”.

The Special Task Force had suspected him to be Mukhtar alias Raju, wanted for the November 23 serial blasts in Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow. Later, the police had to move court seeking his release as no evidence was found against him.

“It was around 1.30 pm when the police pounced on me near Chidiya Mod in Cossipore (Kolkata). I was thrown inside a white ambassador and taken for questioning,” Ansari said. The police insisted that he was associated with HuJI and his name was Mukhtar alias Raju. No one was ready to hear his plea. “Jo pakda jata hai, begunah hi batata hai (Those who are arrested always plead innocence),” Ansari quoted his interrogators as saying.

Story continues below this ad

Bereft of hope, he spent sleepless nights worrying about his future, his wife, widowed mother and three unmarried sisters. “My father Abdul Aziz died in 2002. I am the only breadwinner in my family. I requested my interrogators to let me talk to my mother. They refused,” he said.

After a medical examination, he was brought to Lucknow in a car. “The heavily armed STF men left nothing to chance. After a stopover in Varanasi, they dropped me at the STF headquarters in Lucknow,” Ansari said.

His interrogators kept describing him as Mukhtar alias Raju. “But I requested them to get my identity verified with the help of my ration card, PAN number and photo identity card,” he said.

On Saturday, his interrogators finally acknowledged defeat. “They confirmed that I am innocent and will be soon released,” Ansari said.