Bangalore : Journalist Muthi-ur-Rehman Siddiqui and electrician Syed Yusuf Nalaband, who were released from Parappana Agrahara prison on Monday, addressed the media on Tuesday and shared their experiences of the ordeal they had been through in the last six months.

Siddiqui said he was greatly relieved that he had walked out of jail honourably after being charged with sedition and waging a war against the state. He said this showed some fair play was still possible in the system. He said though justice was delayed, it wasn’t denied in his case.

He claimed there existed an institutional bias against people belonging to the minority communities in the state apparatus and the media.

Siddiqui termed the way they were arrested as “kidnap.” While the FIR recorded their time of arrest as 3:30 pm, August 29, he said all of them were picked up simultaneously from the same house between 8:30 am and 9 am that day.

He said they were given no reason for their arrest as per law. He said all of them were made to sign 30-40 blank papers and were later surprised when one such paper was used as an arrest memo.

He said though he was not physically tortured in the prison, he faced mental torture. Others arrested with him were physically tortured, he claimed.

Siddiqui said that as per law of the land, all were innocent until proven guilty. So all those arrested should be treated that way.

He said he knew Shoaib Ahmed Mirza, Aijaz Ahmed Mirza, Syed Yusuf Nalaband, Abdulla Hakim Jamadar, Riyaz Ahmed Byahatti, as all of them hailed from Hubli and lived in the same room. He said the experience had changed him a lot as a person.

When asked about his future plan, he said journalism was his passion and he would return to it very soon. He said his immediate concern was to spend some time with his family back home.-DH News