Monday, July 18, 2011

Wife of Malegaon blast suspect seeks divorce

Mateen Hafeez, TNN

MUMBAI
: Jannatun Nisa, wife of 2006 Malegaon bomb blast suspect, Abrar Ahmed, has approached the Sharia court in Malegaon for Khula (Islamic practice of women seeking divorce).

In her letter, Nisastated that she is fed up of tolerating people making sarcastic remarks against her while her in-laws said that she was trying to escape questioning by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Nisa, who is a resident of Malegaon's Fort area, wrote a letter to Qazi

Abdul Ahad Azhari, the chief qazi (judge) for Maharashtra under the sharia law, seeking separation (khula).

"It has been five years since my husband was arrested. My in-laws ill-treat me and I am suffering for no fault of mine. People term me as a police informer's wife and I have been staying with my brothers since Ahmed's arrest. Looking at the current situation, I have decided to seek khula and stay with my brothers," Nisa stated in her one-page letter.

Ahmed was arrested in 2006 by the Anti-Terrorism Squad for allegedly being one of the blast conspirators. In the chargesheet filed by the Anti-Terrorism Squad, he has been shown as one of the bomb planters. He went missing along with his wife after the blasts and was finally traced and produced in the court by the police when a habeas corpus petition was filed by Ahmed's elder brother, advocate Jaleel Ansari. Ahmed had given a confessional statement before a deputy commissioner but later retracted it saying that it was given under duress. He has, in an affidavit to the court, stated that he was framed by an IPS officer and his cronies.

Ansari said, "Nisa is trying to escape the interrogation by the NIA since she knows how my brother was wrongly implicated in the case. Now we are hoping NIA will question her and that is why she is scared." Nisa could not be contacted.


The Times of India, July 18, 2011