‘THERE WAS A TIME WHEN MY FRIENDS WOULD AVOID ME’
Khalid Shaikh, 46, Ahmedabad Has been representing 123 alleged members of the banned outfit SIMI since 2001
“Have you seen Jolly LLB 2?” says Khalid Shaikh, referring to the 2013 dark comedy about a lawyer fighting a rich man on behalf of a group of poor labourers. “The film is in a lighter vein, but I really identify with it. It’s one of the few films I’ve made time to see.” In some ways, time has stood still for Shaikh since 2001. That’s the year the government of India banned the Students Islamic Movement of India, for alleged involvement in terror acts, and 123 people were arrested in Ahmedabad.
“With support from my seniors I plunged into the cases as I was convinced that many of them were innocent of any wrongdoing,” Shaikh says.
“In a year, all the accused got bail. But the final judgement just keeps dragging. Some of these people are bright professionals who cannot go abroad unless they are acquitted.”
On the upside, that case gave him the confidence to fight in other cases where society and the system were heavily pitted against the accused, like the Akshardham temple attack case of 2002.
His family is a big reason he has been able to carry on. “They value my work,” he says. “They saw the six men’s faces when they were acquitted by the Supreme Court in the Akshardham case, with a strongly worded judgement against the investigating agency.”
Some friends have avoided him when he was on sensitive cases. “No one said anything directly but I could feel I was being excluded,” he says. “They understand that I work for the wronged. And for me, it’s a special kind of joy when you are finally able to get justice for someone
falsely accused.”