Faheem Ansari, also known as Mohammad Faheem Ansari, is an Indian Muslim who was charged with involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks on false grounds. He was also charged with being a member of the

Lashkar-e-Taiba Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT; ur, ; literally ''Army of the Good'', translated as ''Army of the Righteous'', or ''Army of the Pure'' and alternatively spelled as ''Lashkar-e-Tayyiba'', ''Lashkar-e-Toiba'', ''Lashkar-i-Taiba'', ''Lashkar-i-Tayyeba'') ...

(LeT), an Islamic

terrorist organization A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...

. All these allegations were proven wrong. He was arrested in February 2009 along with five others, charged with these crimes and prosecuted, but was acquitted after being given benefit of doubt. The late Shahid Azmi was his lawyer and fought his case '' pro bono.'' Faheem Ansari was discharged by court in May 2010, a few months after Shahid Azmi's death by gunmen in February 2010. He was released after 12 years of detention because of a case, in which he was acquitted because of lack of evidence.

Background

Ansari's family was originally from

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

, but he was born and raised in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

. He is married to Yasmin, with whom he has a daughter, Iqra. In 2007, he returned to Mumbai and stayed there for about three months. Though his parents and brothers were residing in the Goregaon suburb of the city, he made no attempt to contact them during his entire stay. He first stayed at a guest house in Grant Road, but after a few weeks rented a small accommodation. Ansari had initially planned on renting an accommodation in Colaba, but due to the high rent there, decided to settle at Grant Road. The Mumbai police alleged that Ansari did a reconnaissance of several prominent Mumbai landmarks, including the Mumbai Stock Exchange, the Mumbai police headquarters at Crawford Market, the Maharashtra police headquarters at Colaba, the Mahalakshmi Temple and the Siddhivinayak temple. Ansari went to the Taj Hotel and

Oberoi Trident The Oberoi Group is an award-winning luxury hotel group with its head office in New Delhi, India. Founded in 1934, the company owns and operates 32 luxury hotels and two river cruise ships in 7 countries, primarily under its Oberoi Hotels & R ...

as a tourist and shot video footage of the interiors.

Arrest

On 10 February 2008,

police arrested Ansari along with five others. These included Pakistani nationals Romez alias "Amar Singh" and Sehwez alias "Ajay Malhotra" and Indian nationals Sohel, Sawauddin (or Sabauddin) Sanju and Baba Jung Bahadur. He was arrested for his involvement with an attack on a

Central Reserve Police Force The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is a federal police organisation in India under the authority of the Ministry of Home Affairs (India), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) of the Government of India. It is one among the Central Armed Police F ...

camp in Rampur on 31 December 2007, in which 7 paramilitary personnel and 1 civilian were killed. The interrogation revealed that Ansari had performed reconnaissance over twelve places in Mumbai, including government, police, transportation, tourist and financial sites over the course of two months. However, Ansari later alleged that the Mumbai police conveniently made him a scapegoat and deliberately falsified evidence against him.

Alleged role in the Mumbai attacks and acquittal

On 31 December 2008, Ansari, along with Sabahuddin Shaikh, was formally accused of aiding the November 2008 attackers in Bombay. The interrogation of Ajmal Qasab and of Ansari, revealed that none of the attackers had been in the city before the attacks, and acted solely on intelligence provided by Ansari. On 11 February 2010, his lawyer Shahid Azmi was murdered in what was suspected by authorities to be a professional contract killing. On 3 May 2010, Ansari and the co-accused Sabahuddin Shaikh were acquitted of any complicity in the attacks. In the acquittal, the Judge blasted the Bombay police for the case it made against him and Sabahuddin Shaikh. They were shifted from

Arthur Road Jail The Mumbai Central Prison, also referred to as Arthur Road Jail, was built in 1926, and is Mumbai's largest and oldest prison. It houses most of the city's prisoners. It was declared a Central Jail in 1972. Although its name was changed to Mumba ...

to Uttar Pradesh to stand trial in connection with the CRPF camp attack at Rampur in 2007.

Sexual harassment

Advocate Ejaz Naqvi, the lawyer for Ansari, presented in court an allegation that a female FBI agent had removed all of Ansari's clothes and showed him pornographic films. Naqvi also requested that Ansari be taken for a medical examination. The court asked the

Crime Branch The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is distinct from its Special Branch (though officers of ...

to investigate and report by 26 February 2009, and ordered the medical examination. Ansari had earlier questioned the right of FBI agents to interrogate him.

Citations

References