Fareeda, the wife of terror suspect Yahya Hiyaz Kammukutty who was arrested in Bangalore, has alleged that her husband is the victim of a conspiracy hatched by his rivals in the software business.
“My husband has been trapped by people in the US-based company who were against his quitting the firm and setting up his own business. It is the very same people who have also planted all sorts of stories against him,” Fareeda told Deccan Herald over telephone from her village near Mukkom in Kozhikode.
The woman and her three children reached her father’s house on Sunday morning from Bangalore where they were forced to spend a couple of days “in a hotel’’ after the arrest was publicised. They were accompanied by Yahya’s father Beerankutty, an activist of Jamaa’t-e-Islami, and Fareeda’s brother Nizamudeen who had left for Bangalore soon after the arrest.
“He lived a devout life of a Muslim and of course he was a former SIMI activist. But I don’t believe that these are passports to terrorism,’’ Fareeda, who holds a diploma in Arabic language, said. Fareeda said her husband was about to start a company to market HR modules and many of the clients with whom he enjoyed good relations were expected to switch loyalties, which worried rivals.
“Whatever has come out about him are lies. Didn’t you read reports that my husband had delivered a speech to a group somewhere. He is not an orator and I have never seen him speak anywhere,’’ Fareeda said. “They say the laptop seized from my husband is loaded with information about terror plots. He doesn’t even possess one and he uses only a personal computer at home. All sorts of canards are being circulated,’’ she said. According to Fareeda, her husband was picked up on February 18 around 10 pm by four plainclothesmen from their two-bedroom rented apartment in Gurappanapallya.
Though Fareeda alerted her father-in-law immediately, he could not travel the next day because of a hartal in Kerala. She went about enquiring with the local police but got no information. It was only on February 21 that they recorded the arrest.
“That afternoon when we returned to the apartment, there was a big commotion outside. Then we decided to move out,’’ she said.
As soon as Beerankutty and Nizamudeen reached Bangalore they went about seeking legal help.
“But who is going to help a family branded as terrorists. That was how we decided to return,’’ she said. “But I am not going to remain idle here. We are going to fight this case in Hubli or wherever,’’ she said.
