Faheem Ansari can walk free

NEW DELHI: Faheem Ansari, once dubbed conspirator in the Mumbai 26/11 attacks but later acquitted because the reconnaissance role attributed to him was proved to be done by David Coleman Headley, can now walk free, after spending 12 years in jail.

Ansari was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Rampur court after being arrested in the terrorist conspiracy case of attacking the CRPF Group Centre, Rampur, in 2007. The court had found him guilty of holding a fake Pakistani passport and an unlicensed pistol. He was also fined Rs 95,000. Since Ansari has already spent 12 years behind bars, he can now walk free if he pays the fine.

The court did not find any role of Ansari in the conspiracy to attack the CRPF Centre but convicted six others, including two Pakistanis, for the 2007 terror attack.


Ansari, a resident of a chawl in Goregoan in Mumbai, was earlier acquitted in the 26/11 attacks case by the trial court and the Supreme Court. He was arrested 10 months prior to the 26/11 attacks by the UP Police from Mumbai in connection with the Rampur attack. The UP Police had then claimed to have recovered hand-made maps of Mumbai from him. These were cited as evidence by the Maharashtra Police, which had claimed that he was involved in reconnaissance activities. But later it was found that American-Indian David Headley was the real culprit.

After his acquittal by SC, Ansari was brought back to a UP jail in 2013 from Mumbai and put on trial in the Rampur case. A former Indian Ambassador posted in Pakistan testified against him in Rampur, confirming that he held a Pakistani passport, numbered BM6809341 issued on November 1, 2007, in the name of Hassan Hammad, a fake identity. The Arms Act charge was also upheld against him for holding an unlicensed pistol.