Rashid Hussain. Telegraph picture

New Delhi, Aug. 18: Electronics engineer Rashid Hussain, picked up by police on suspicion of involvement in the Jaipur blasts, walked free after nine days of illegal detention — but has lost his job at Infosys.

Two weeks after the May blasts this year, the police had walked into Hussain’s Jaipur home at 5am on June 1 and whisked him away for questioning that lasted nine days before he was released.

But Infosys, for whom he had worked for three years, asked him to appear before an internal panel that quizzed him about discrepancies in his statements about previous work experience and asked him to leave.

Hussain said he was devastated by the abrupt termination of what he described was a “great relationship” with his company. “I never expected this from Infosys,” Hussain said. “It’s a company with people who are icons for this country.”

Infosys has said the company asked Hussain to leave because of problems discovered during a background check. “After the event in Jaipur, we ran a background check (on Hussain). It revealed serious discrepancies which led to severance of our relationship with him. This is normal action taken. We have no other comments to offer,” an Infosys spokesperson told The Telegraph via email.

Other Infosys officials declined comment.

Hussain said the internal panel had asked him to explain why he had shown two years of previous teaching experience instead of his actual three years experience while applying for the job. He was also told that an engineering firm in Patna where he had worked earlier was not in existence.

Hussain said he had explained to the panel that since his teaching job had required him to spend only five hours a day at the academic institution, he had mentioned two years instead of three and that the firm had shut down.

Hussain has challenged the decision by Infosys in a labour court in Jaipur.

Human rights activists said Hussain and other young educated Muslims across India appeared to be experiencing double victimisation — labelling by police and harassment by employers.

“Their attitude is aggressive and heartless and comes from a communal tendency,” said Kavita Srivastava, general secretary in the Rajasthan branch of the Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties. “It’s like religious profiling,” she said.

“We admire this man’s courage. Rashid has decided to fight against this injustice,” said Shabnam Hashmi, founder of Anhad, a non-government organisation in New Delhi campaigning for communal harmony.

Human rights activists said both educated and uneducated Muslims were being unfairly portrayed as individuals at high risk of involvement with terrorism.

“If they’re uneducated, they’re portrayed as easy recruits as terrorists, and if they’re educated, they’re portrayed as dangerous because they may have skills to engage in terror activities,” said Apoovanand, an Anhad activist who’s also an academic at the University of Delhi.

Anhad activists today cited the case of Aftab Ali Ansari, a Bengal government employee, who was picked up by Bengal police and handed over to Uttar Pradesh police on suspicion of involvement in a series of bomb blasts in courts. Aftab was released after several days in custody.

“They’re picking up doctors and students on mere suspicion,” said Srivastava.

Nearly 100 people from about 10 states who have been similarly picked up by police, illegally detained, and then set free are expected to attend a tribunal of “innocent victims” to be held in Hyderabad later this month, Hashmi said.