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Following the Bombay High Court’s July ruling that overturned the convictions of all 12 men in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case, Wahid Deen Mohammad Shaikh, the sole person acquitted by the trial court in 2015, has now sought ₹9 crore as compensation for nine years of wrongful imprisonment.
In a statement issued on Friday (September 12, 2025), Mr. Shaikh said he had approached the National Human Rights Commission, Delhi and Maharashtra; National Commission for Minorities, Government of India; Minority Development Department (Minority Commission), government of Maharashtra, demanding recognition of what he termed an “irreparable loss” to his liberty, dignity, and life trajectory.
Arrested at the age of 28 under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), Mr. Shaikh spent nine years in Arthur Road Jail before being acquitted by the special MCOCA court on September 11, 2015. The trial court, presided over by Judge Y.D. Shinde, found no evidence against him, and his acquittal has not been challenged by the State.
“The years I lost, the humiliation I faced, and the pain my family endured can never be undone. I was brutally tortured in custody, which left me with glaucoma and chronic body pain,” he said. Before 2006, he was a school teacher.
“From 2006 to 2015 when I was lodged in Arthur Road Jail, I pursued my post-graduation in English literature and LLB,” he told The Hindu. While in prison, he authored Begunah Qaidi (Innocent Prisoner), documenting his experiences of false implication and custodial torture. The book inspired the 2022 Hindi film Haemolymph: Invisible Blood. He has also completed his PhD in Prison Literature.
After he was released from prison, he founded an all-India collective called Innocence Network that works for the rights of those who have been wrongly prosecuted or convicted. He also started a YouTube channel called Begunah Qaidi.
“My father passed away while I was in prison, my mother’s mental health collapsed, and my wife raised our children alone under the stigma of being branded a terrorist’s family. She had to beg for jobs as there was no one to fend for the children. Through community support, she secured a job in an Urdu school,” adding that he continues to live under a debt of nearly ₹30 lakh.
Mr. Shaikh pointed to precedents in wrongful arrest cases, including that of ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan, who was awarded ₹50 lakh by the Supreme Court in 2018. He also cited compensation awarded by the NHRC in the cases of Mohammad Amir and Fauji Ansari.
“For 10 years after my acquittal, I refrained from seeking compensation out of moral concern for my co-accused, who remained in prison. Now that they too have been acquitted, it is clear the entire case was fabricated. My demand is not charity, but recognition of the grave injustice inflicted upon me and my family,” he said.
Published – September 13, 2025 08:05 am IST
