Published on: 13 September, 2025 20:15 IST
Following the Bombay High Court’s July 2025 ruling that set aside the convictions of all 12 men in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case, Wahid Deen Mohammad Shaikh- the only accused acquitted earlier by the trial court in 2015- has sought ₹9 crore in compensation for what he called nine years of wrongful imprisonment.
In a statement issued on Friday (September 12), Shaikh said he has approached the National Human Rights Commission, the National Commission for Minorities, and the Maharashtra Minority Commission, seeking acknowledgment of the “irreparable loss” caused to his liberty, dignity, and life.
Arrested in 2006 at the age of 28 under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), Shaikh spent nine years in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail before being acquitted on September 11, 2015, by a special MCOCA court that found no evidence against him. The State did not challenge the acquittal.
“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 pain,” Shaikh said. Before his arrest, he had worked as a schoolteacher. During his years in prison, he pursued a master’s degree in English literature, completed an LLB, and authored Begunah Qaidi (Innocent Prisoner), a memoir that inspired the 2022 Hindi film Haemolymph: Invisible Blood. He later earned a PhD in Prison Literature.
After his release, Shaikh founded the national collective Innocence Network, which supports those wrongfully prosecuted or convicted, and launched a YouTube channel named Begunah Qaidi. Reflecting on the personal toll of his incarceration, he said his father passed away while he was in prison, his mother suffered a mental breakdown, and his wife was left to raise their children under the stigma of being labeled a “terrorist’s family.” He also revealed that he continues to struggle with debts of nearly ₹30 lakh.
Citing compensation precedents like the ₹50 lakh awarded by the Supreme Court to ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan and NHRC awards in other wrongful arrest cases, Shaikh stressed that his demand was for justice, not charity. “For a decade after my acquittal, I refrained from seeking compensation out of moral concern for my co-accused who were still imprisoned. Now that the High Court has cleared them too, it is evident the case was fabricated. My demand is recognition of the grave injustice inflicted upon me and my family,” he said.