Cops framing Ilyas in Jaipur blasts case, claims family

WORKING ON A LEAD: Police say they arrested Ilyas on charges of possessing fake passports.

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Keywords: Arrest, Mohammed Ilyas

Jaipur: The Rajasthan police announced its first major breakthrough in the Jaipur blasts earlier this week with the arrest of Mohammed Ilyas, a cleric from Bharatpur. But Ilyas' family and friends say he is being framed.

"The law enforcers are breaking the law and so how can we expect justice," Mohammad Zubair, son of Ilyas, says.

Zubair is angry and upset as one month after the bombs went off in Jaipur, police say Zubair's father Mohammed Ilyas, a cleric from Bharatpur, could be involved in the blasts.

"We received information that he was a poor man and that he had got so much of money within a short period of time. We came to know that he had three different passports and that he has lost one, but he didn't report it to the police. We got source information that he was involved in Bombay blasts but that is not verified," says Punnuchamy, Chief, Special Operations Group.

The police say they arrested Ilyas on charges of possessing fake passports. But Ilyas's friends and relatives rubbish the allegations, and say he was illegally detained much earlier.

"He was illegally detained by the police on May 22. But his arrest was formally announced 15 days later on June 8," Islamuddin, Ilyas' neighbour, says.

"The police picked my father for his alleged involvement in the Jaipur blasts, but the case they have registered against him is for possession of two passports," Zubair adds.

Zubair and others say the FIR registered by the police Special Operations Group has contradictions.

The FIR says Ilyas possessed two passports: No. B3069936 and F6195366.

But Ilyas's first passport was issued from Chandigarh in 1992 and expired in 1997.

Subsequently, he got a new passport issued from Jaipur in 2001, without declaring the possession of his previous passport. This, too, expired in 2006.

The Jamaat-e-Islami-Hindi says the arrest is just another instance of Muslims being stereotyped as anti-nationals.

Engineer Mohammad Salim, President, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Rajasthan says, "Instead of bringing the real culprits the police is rounding up Muslim youths, the Ulemas. Muslims are being targetted."

Mohammad Ilyas' arrest was announced as the first big breakthrough in the Jaipur blasts investigation.

But his family, friends and Muslim community organisations dispute the claims being made by the police.