Man acquitted in 26/11 terror attack petitions HC for certificate to drive an auto | Mumbai news

MUMBAI: Fahim Arshad Mohammad Yusuf Ansari, one of the two accused to be acquitted in the 26/11 terror attacks case, has filed a petition in the Bombay high court, seeking a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) which will enable him work as a commercial autorickshaw driver.

According to his petition, Fahim’s plea for the PCC was rejected by Mumbai police on grounds of his alleged link with Pakistani terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Ansari, 51, has been unemployed since the printing press he worked at shut down in the pandemic. He has now challenged the rejection of police clearance as arbitrary, discriminatory, and seeped in prejudice.

Ansari was arrested on January 23, 2009 on the charge of providing local support to the ten Pakistani LeT operatives who attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008, killing 166 people and injuring 238 others.

A special court cleared him and another man, Sabauddin Ahmed, of all the charges levelled against them on May 3, 2010, and on February 21, 2011, the Bombay High Court upheld their acquittal.

Shortly after his release in November 2019 from a jail in Uttar Pradesh where he was convicted in connection with the attack on a Rampur CRPF camp in December 2007, Ansari was hired as a delivery person at a printing press at Byculla. But the printing press was shut down during Covid-19, after which he was reduced to doing odd jobs.

Last year, he applied for a three-wheeler driving licence, which he received on January 1, 2024. He then submitted an application for a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC), which is required to receive a permit for driving a commercial vehicle like three wheelers.

Ansari says in his petition that despite attempts he could not get an update on the status of his application. He next filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and received a response on August 13, 2024, which stated that he was ineligible for a PCC in view of the allegations that he was a member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terrorist organisation banned under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Ansari has claimed that he is being deprived of his fundamental rights to livelihood and right to life guaranteed under the constitution. In his petition he claimed to have suffered gravely despite having paid his dues to society for his past conviction.

“He is legally entitled to engage in gainful employment without facing legal barriers”, the petition stated. He highlighted the lack of evidence to substantiate his ties with the LeT. “The fact that the petitioner was tried in the (26/11 attack) case cannot operate as a blanket ban that disentitles him from availing opportunities, especially in the light of the acquittal order passed by the special court and confirmed even by the Supreme Court,” says the petition.

He urged the court to issue directions to the authorities to grant him the PCC. He asserted that his trial and acquittal in connection to the 26/11 incident should not be used to justify denial to employment. The Bombay high court has posted his petition for hearing on March 18.

Ansari was arrested after 26/11 for allegedly conducting a reconnaissance of important locations in the city and for passing hand-drawn maps to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) across the border through the second accused Sabauddin Ahmed. The maps, the police claimed, were later used by the attackers to reach their destinations within the city on November 26, 2008.

Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, the only two Indians to stand trial for 26/11 were prosecuted along with the lone attacker caught alive, Ajmal Amir Kasab. But on May 3, 2010, a special court rejected the prosecution’s evidence against the duo, observing that the prosecution evidence lacked both quantity and quality as well.

The prosecution case against the duo rested on the testimony of an alleged eyewitness, Nooruddin Shaikh who claimed to have been in Kathmandu in January 2008 where he claimed to have seen Fahim handover some city maps to Sabauddin.

The police claimed that Sabauddin had passed on these maps to LeT bosses in Pakistan and that one such map was recovered from trouser pocket of Abu Ismail, one of the 26/11 attackers.

The court however ruled that the maps were “confusing.” The special court also noted that the map found from Abu Ismail’s trouser pocket was neither crumpled nor blood stained despite him being shot dead. “How can a piece of paper kept in a trouser pocket remain this clean and uncreased from November 22 (when the attackers set sail from Karachi) to 28?” the court asked ruling for Fahim and Sabauddin’s acquittal.