And Saleem Khan’s hours of freedom

Saleem Khan was granted custodial parole midAugust to attend the funeral of his brother From Delhirsquos Mandoli Jail he was brought to the graveyard in a prison van stoking the neighbourhoodrsquos curiosity They rushed out of their homes some took to rooftops Armed men in uniform jumped out of the van and went to check whether the body had arrived for the burialldquoDadrdquo called out Saima 26 the eldest of Saleemrsquos three children ldquoDadrdquo repeated Sahil younger to Saima by two years They and their mother Shavina wondered at the impact the sudden demise of his brother had had on Saleem They could not see him as the prison van did not have windows only small openings high on both sides of the vehicleThe body arrived at dusk Saleem was taken out of the van He walked slowly handinhand with a cop a precaution against the prisoner fleeing Countless cellphones began to record the scene He broke down On that evening along with the dead was also buried Saleemrsquos dignitySaleem Khan whose family says he never participated in the antiCAA protestsOnce again on September 12 Saleem came in the prison van with 18 armed escorts to the familyrsquos apartment at Yamuna Vihar Northeast Delhi to attend the ceremony observed on the 40th day of the death of a person They entered the living room where the recital of the Quran awaited his arrival No he could not sit there for that would have a whiff of normalcy Prisoners on custodial parole must always experience the denial of freedomSaleem was taken to an adjoining room Its door was left ajar for him to listen to the recital Relatives and visitors one by one went to meet him including a neighbour who had described Saleem Khanrsquos family in Shavinarsquos presence as that of a terrorist Perhaps repentant he like others told Saleem ldquoAll things must passrdquo In the present though the cops disallowed the family to serve food specially prepared for the ceremony to Saleem To partake of a tasty meal is to also savour freedom Next moment Saleem was goneTwo days later I am in the living room listening to Shavina Saima and Sahil recount their travails in the aftermath of the February 2020 Delhi riots The police would summon Saleem engaged in an exportimport business and place four or five photographs of protesters on the table He was unable to identify them explaining he had not participated in the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 On March 10 he did not return home Next morning they were informed of his arrestFor the next three months they did not know of his whereabouts ldquoThose monthshelliprdquo Shavina sighs her eyes welling upOn June 25 they were summoned to the Delhi Special Police Cell office Saima was taken to a room Soon a man entered in clothes hanging loose on him his beard and hair silvery On coming close to her he said ldquoSaimardquo She jumped The man was her 47 years old father whom she had never seen without his hair and beard dyed black Besides two other cases he had been booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act which with its stringent bail provisions implied a long haul awaited himSaima and Sahil had been thrown into the deep end They had to learn to swim to stave off economic misery A graduate Sahil renamed his fatherrsquos company and strove to build upon the one customer who chose to stick with themA Bachelor in Dental Surgery Saima juggles two jobs pitches in for Sahil on Sundays and tracks the cases against her father She withdrew the legal brief from a lawyer representing Saleem pro bono The reason he had twice disconnected the calls her father had made to him from jail She handed over the brief to another lawyer willing to forego his fees But lately he would send to court juniors lacking in skills And so she engaged a third lawyer again free of chargeSaleem was granted bail in one case in 2020 Another had gone in appeal to the High Court Would it not help to have a lawyer of repute argue the bail matter Saima called up Congress leader and lawyer Salman Khurshid who invited her over for a meeting She narrated to him the familyrsquos woes Khurshid agreed to argue pro bono and secured bail for Saleem in 2021ldquoMy father felt so so proud of me that a lawyer of Khurshidrsquos standing argued for himmdashand would also do so in the UAPA caserdquo she says beaming Khurshid also spoke to the school where Adeeba Saleemrsquos third child studies and persuaded the management to rework the fee structure for herA Persian cat comes out of a room and walks over to us with the feline grace unafraid of the stranger in the room Saima says Khurshid inquired whether she would in the future stand up for another person deprived of his or her rights Petrified by the arrest of innocent student leaders she told Khurshid she would not ldquoBut now after months of reflection to the same question I would say yesrdquo Billu the Persian cat purrs as if in approvalThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper