Source / Courtesy: Tehelka
By: ASHISH KHETAN
The confession of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak Swami Aseemanand, about his involvement in the blast in Hyderabad’s historic Mecca Masjid, Ajmer’s Khwaja Moinuddin dargah and many other places, has surprised his followers and detractors alike.
Syed Abdul Kaleem, a resident of Hyderabad from the state of Andhra Pradesh, was detained and tortured by the police on suspicion of being involved in the Mecca Masjid blast. He lost three years of his life battling terror allegations while his family was humiliated by society. A strange outcome came when Swami Aseemanand and Kaleem were kept in the same prison.
Innocence of Kaleem led to penance
As Kaleem helped the much older Swami by bringing him food and water, the two men became close. Soon, the 59-year-old Aseemanand opened up. “During my stay in jail, Kaleem helped me a lot and used to serve me by bringing water, food, etc… and my conscience asked me to do prayschit (penance) by making a confessional statement so that the real culprits can be punished…” Aseemanand had said in his confessional statement before a magistrate in Delhi on December 18 last year.
The untold story
Syed Abdul Kaleem, who got a seat in a medical course in 2007 but because of the police, he lost that. Ater the court acquitted me in that case (of conspiracy), he got admission in a law college. But the police arrested him again last year and he could not appear in one of the semester examinations. Now waiting for the release of his brother Khwaja, who is also a victim of police atrocity. He was working in Saudi Arabia but the police here spread stories about him being in Pakistan or Bangladesh. Then they brought him here from Saudi Arabia, saying he was involved in a bomb blast. They also alleged that he was an associate of Shahid Bilal, another youth from Hyderabad. These are all false allegations and he will be proved innocent. Inshallah, the court will acquit him and release him.
Forgive-fullness of the innocent
When asked Didn’t you feel angry at Aseemanand?
“No. Even if you are angry with somebody, and he comes to you with sorrow, you calm down. Even otherwise, I would not have been angry with him as he was an elderly person. I was taught be my parents that I should always be respectful towards elders. I never called him Swamiji or Aseemanandji, I always called him uncle out of respect.”
When he was further asked that Newspapers are full of stories of how you reformed or changed Swami Aseemanand. He humbly replied
“I don’t deserve this credit. I am happy that God used me to change Aseemanandji. I firmly believe that I was sent to jail a second time by Allah as He wanted me to meet Swamiji and open his eyes. I am really happy about that.”
Categories: Asia, Human Rights, India, Interfaith tolerance, Terrorism
Quite moving story but regrettably such are very rare in real life. Similarly one odd story can not reaffirm the anology taken as titile of the article.
Jazakh Allah for your comment janab Zubair sb. I agree with what you said.
I will like to further add that though modern judiciary and law enforcement agencies do not believe in practising “benefit of doubt” for the convict. Still Islam asks us to give benefit of doubt to the convict of the crime. If heart of Ikrama(r.a.), Hazrat Umar(r.a.) could later on change in favor of truth, i believe everyon else’s can. Check below link, it has greater detail of the events as they happened.
http://www.rediff.com/news/report/slide-show-1-interview-with-the-youth-who-prompted-swami-aseemanand-to-confess/20110119.htm
jazakAllah Azim Sahib! for this piece of news.