Indian Muslim seeks compensation over wrongful jailing in terror case

NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — A Muslim man acquitted in connection with the 2006 Mumbai train bombings has demanded compensation of 90 million Indian rupees (about $ 1.02 million), arguing that nearly a decade of wrongful incarceration and custodial torture destroyed his youth, family, and career.

Abdul Wahid Shaikh, the only accused cleared by a trial court in 2015, filed petitions  before India’s National Human Rights Commission and the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission. His appeal comes months after the Bombay High Court in July 2025 acquitted the remaining 12 men, ruling that the prosecution had “utterly failed” to prove its case.

Shaikh’s arrest in 2006 by Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad left him imprisoned for nine years before his release. He told rights bodies that the ordeal inflicted “irreparable” harm on his education and employment prospects, and that the stigma of being branded a “terrorist” still shadows his life.

In a statement accompanying his petition, Shaikh described years of torture in custody that caused lasting health problems including glaucoma and chronic pain. He said his father died while he was behind bars, his mother’s mental health deteriorated, and his wife struggled alone to raise their children, who grew up under the social stigma of being labeled “a terrorist’s children.”

“My liberty, dignity, and the most important years of my youth were stolen,” Shaikh said. “My family faced extreme hardship. I remain in debt of nearly 3 million rupees for medical and living expenses, and I had to rebuild my life from scratch.”

He now works as a school teacher but says the wrongful branding has left him socially isolated and economically vulnerable. His petition also cites precedents in which human rights commissions in India have granted financial redress to victims of unlawful detention.

The 2006 Mumbai train bombings, one of India’s deadliest attacks, killed more than 180 people and injured hundreds when seven blasts ripped through commuter trains during rush hour. 

In the aftermath, 13 Muslim men were accused. A special court sentenced five to death and seven to life imprisonment, though one of the death-row prisoners died in custody in 2021.

With the July acquittals, Shaikh said he waited nearly a decade before seeking compensation out of respect for co-accused who remained imprisoned. “I decided to wait until all had been declared innocent,” he wrote.

Rights advocates say his case highlights the devastating impact of wrongful imprisonment in India’s counterterrorism prosecutions, particularly on marginalized Muslim communities, where allegations of profiling and fabricated charges remain persistent.