15 years after acquittal, 26/11 accused denied police clearance to drive autorickshaw

In his petition, Fahim Ansari said the denial of a police clearance certificate was “arbitrary, discriminatory, and seeped in prejudice”

MUMBAI: Fifteen years after he was cleared of all charges in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case, Fahim Ansari is still battling the shadow of suspicion. On Friday, the Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court that his application for a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) — a requirement to drive a commercial auto-rickshaw — had been turned down because he continues to be under watch for suspected links with a banned terror outfit.

Trying to rebuild his life after release, he found temporary work at a printing press until it shut during Covid-19. Since then, he has been surviving on odd jobs, and his latest attempt to secure a livelihood — by driving an auto-rickshaw — has now landed in court (Hindustan Times)

“There is a confidential report as per which Ansari is still under watch on suspicion that he is a member of a banned terror outfit,” public prosecutor Mankhuwar Deshmukh told a division bench of chief justice Shree Chandrashekhar and justice Gautam Ankhad.

Ansari, 51, has been unemployed since the pandemic forced a Byculla printing press, where he worked as a delivery hand, to shut down. With little option but to start afresh, he applied for a commercial driving licence last year and, after receiving it on January 1 this year, sought the mandatory PCC. The Mumbai police rejected his request, citing alleged links to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) — the Pakistan-based terror group that planned the 26/11 attacks.

In his petition challenging the rejection, Ansari called the denial of a clearance certificate “arbitrary, discriminatory, and seeped in prejudice.” He argued that he was being deprived of his fundamental right to livelihood despite having already served his sentence in another case.

“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,” the plea said.

Ansari’s life has been marked by a cycle of arrests, acquittals and setbacks. Picked up by police in January 2009 for allegedly providing hand-drawn maps of Mumbai locations later targeted in the November 2008 attacks, he was accused of conducting reconnaissance for the LeT operatives who killed 166 people and injured 238. But a special court in May 2010 acquitted him and co-accused Sabauddin Ahmed, noting the prosecution’s evidence “lacked both quantity and quality.” The Bombay High Court upheld the acquittal in 2011.

His legal troubles, however, were not over. In connection with a separate 2007 Lashkar attack on a CRPF camp in Rampur, Ansari was convicted in Uttar Pradesh and served a prison term before being released in 2019.

Trying to rebuild his life after release, he found temporary work at a printing press until it shut during Covid-19. Since then, he has been surviving on odd jobs, and his latest attempt to secure a livelihood — by driving an auto-rickshaw — has now landed in court.