Is-accused

ATS says it watched the brothers, the two went from one failed business venture to another, reducing both to penury and forcing Naeem to work as a casual labourer.

Relatives say Vaseem was not interested in studies and always wanted to do business. After he failed his Masters of Computer Application exam, father Arif Ramodia told both his sons to stop studying as he couldn’t afford to pay for their education anymore. Arif retired as a stenographer from Saurashtra University, Rajkot, in June 2015. He is also an umpire associated with the Saurashtra Cricket Association, Rajkot. Their mother Shirin belongs to Bhavnagar.

Relatives say Arif’s decision forced Naeem, then in his Bachelors of Computer Application course, to also drop out, despite wanting to pursue studies.

Arif married off Vaseem to Shehjeen, a girl from Bhavnagar, in 2010. Their first child, a boy, died minutes after birth. They now have a four-year-old girl. Later, Naeem got married to Farheen, who belongs to Bhavnagar too, and they have a one-year-old son.

Around three years ago, the two families shifted to Bhavnagar. They first tried their hand at readymade men’s clothes, opening a shop in Pirchhalla area. When that did not take off, they shifted to women garments and opened another shop, again in Pirchhalla.

Locals remember the brothers as being fond of video games and frequenting a gaming zone in Sanskar Mandal area.

When the women’s clothes business also failed, around a year ago, Vaseem returned to Rajkot and started working as a graphic designer.

In 2015, Naeem moved into Afrin Apartments, in the Muslim-dominated area of Prabhudas Talav, into a two-bedroom flat that had been gifted by his maternal grandfather.

According to relatives, Naeem’s financial situation kept getting worse, with his attempt at dealing in scrap generated at the ship-recycling yard in Alang on the Bhavnagar coast also failing.

Bablu Saifi says Naeem first came looking for work at his scrapyard around six months ago. Surprised at the ATS charge of him and brother Vaseem having terror links, including planning attack on a famous temple in Surendranagar, Saifi says his impression of Naeem was of a defeated man. “He was a software engineer by training but didn’t even give an impression of that. In fact, he looked too old for his age. He would be happy cleaning and washing scrap and smoking bidis.”

A relative says everyone in the family knew of Naeem’s dire straits. “He struggled for petty amounts like Rs 200 or Rs 300. His wife Farheen had learnt to run the house on the slimmest of budgets.”

At Afrin Apartments, neighbours are equally surprised at the terror charge, though they add they had little interaction with the couple. “Naeem didn’t attend society meetings and hardly mingled with others,” says a neighbour.

Sources said Farheen was at her parents’ home with their son when Naeem was arrested just after midnight on Sunday. Three hours later, Vaseem was arrested from his residence in Nehru Nagar area of Rajkot. The ATS claims to have recovered literature on making bombs from their laptops, as well as crude bombs, gun powder and jihadi literature.

Vaseem’s father-in-law Aziz Lada, who lives in Bhavnagar, alleges Vaseem and wife Shehjeen are being framed. “A young man in such crisis can be lured by the offer of a small amount of money. But that doesn’t make him a serious offender like a terrorist... It is possible my son-in-law might have committed some mistake and that could be the reason he has been arrested. But his mistake is being magnified a thousand times.”

On Sunday morning, hours after Naeem’s arrest, a mob rushed inside the Afrin Apartments and threatened that “if somebody is planning to plant bombs, we will do our bit too”.

Police have since deployed two police control room vans outside the building.