The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by Faheem Ansari, who was acquitted in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks case, seeking a direction to the police to issue him a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC). Ansari had sought the certificate to obtain an RTO badge and permit to drive an autorickshaw for his livelihood.
A division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Ranjitsinha Bhonsale upheld the decision of the authorities to refuse the certificate, stating that the refusal was justified under the circumstances.
Faheem Ansari was one of the two Indian nationals accused of being co-conspirators in the November 26, 2008, terror attacks that killed 166 people. While the captured terrorist Ajmal Kasab was convicted and executed, a special court acquitted Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed in May 2010 due to a lack of evidence. This acquittal was subsequently upheld by both the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court.
Despite this acquittal, Ansari served a 10-year prison sentence in a separate case in Uttar Pradesh. Following his release in 2019, he worked at printing presses in Mumbai and Mumbra. Seeking a more stable income, he obtained an autorickshaw license in early 2024 but was unable to ply the vehicle commercially without the mandatory PCC.
Ansari approached the High Court in January 2023 after his application for the PCC was rejected. He argued through his petition that the refusal was “arbitrary, illegal, and discriminatory.” He contended that his acquittal in the 26/11 case should mean he is “legally entitled to engage in gainful employment, free from any legal blemish or barriers.”
The petition further argued that the trial in the terror case should not act as a “blanket ban” on his job opportunities, especially since the highest courts in the land had cleared him of those specific charges.
The state government opposed the plea, revealing through an RTI response and court submissions that the PCC was denied due to allegations of Ansari’s association with the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). In September last year, the government informed the court that Ansari remained under police surveillance, justifying the security concerns that led to the rejection of his clearance.
The prosecution in the original 26/11 trial had alleged that Ansari prepared maps of Mumbai targets for the Pakistani conspirators. However, the trial court had famously noted during his acquittal that better maps were readily available online at the time.
After hearing the arguments, the bench of Justices Gadkari and Bhonsale found no merit in the petition. “The certificate was rightly refused by the authority concerned,” the bench noted while dismissing the plea. The court indicated that a detailed order explaining the legal reasoning for the dismissal would be released at a later date.
