Maulvi Hussain Umarji

Ahmedabad, Feb 22: Maulvi Hussain Umarji, labelled the chief conspirator in the Godhra train burning and slammed behind bars eight years ago, was acquitted today but his family is not rejoicing.

“For us now there is nothing to gain and lose. We have already paid a huge price for no reason. Though we are happy that we ultimately got justice, there are still many innocents languishing in jail and their family members are anxiously waiting for them,” his son Saeed, 34, said.

“A diabetes patient who is so weak that he cannot walk without stick and support was arrested and his reputation tarnished,” the cleric’s son said.

The family, who are timber merchants and known for their philanthropy in the area, are considering suing for compensation.

Umarji, along with 62 co-accused found innocent by the special court in Sabarmati Jail, was tonight on his way home to Godhra, 150km from Ahmedabad.

He had been arrested from his house a year after the train fire on the basis of the confession of an accused.

Mukhtar Mohammad, a social worker who had worked with Umarji, 63, when he was running a relief camp for riot victims in Godhra, said: “The maulvi was nowhere in the picture. His name was dragged in after a small-time criminal under police duress made ‘confessions’…. The confession was the real conspiracy hatched by Gujarat police.”

A source said the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had visited the relief camp with Narendra Modi and asked Umarji, who had also organised a relief camp during the Gujarat earthquake, how things were. Umarji had pointed to Modi and said Vajpayee should ask him since it was his doing, the source claimed.

Umarji was initially investigated for the source of funding for his relief camp after several national leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, visited it.

Returning home with him today was Mohammed Hussain Kalota, 50, who was the Godhra municipality president when he was arrested in 2002. His son, Mehfuz, was a Class VI student when Kalota went to jail. He is now in his BA third year, waiting for his father who underwent a heart bypass surgery in prison.

He was involved in rescue operations during the train fire, Mukhtar Mohammad said, but got labelled a key conspirator by the police.

Kalota, cleared of all charges today, had once in the past got bail because there was no evidence against him but the Gujarat government moved Supreme Court to have it cancelled.

His wife Hasina was sceptical when a family friend and lawyer assured her recently that Kalota would be freed soon. Tonight, she was overjoyed when a family friend told Hasina her husband was on his way home.