Wary chawl irked by Ansari spotlight

Mateen Hafeez | TNN

Mumbai: Residents of Batatawala chawl near Grant Road railway station are wary of Monday. That it is judgment day for the 26/11 accused is of little consequence to them. What bothers them is that irrespective of the verdict, their chawl will be in unwanted spotlight. For it was here that Mumbai-based 26/11 suspect Faheem Ansari is accused of renting a flat, an infamy that returns time and again to haunt the otherwise nondescript two-storey chawl.

The crime branch claimed that Ansari was initially hunting for a room near Badhwar Park at Cuffe Parade but when he did not get any, he rented one in this congested chawl to store arms and ammunition. Ansari is accused of drawing maps of some of the sites targetted during 26/11 by the Pakistani terrorists.

This correspondent’s enquiries at the chawl about room number 14 and its infamous former occupant drew the attention of a group of youths chatting nearby. “Who is Ansari? Is he an MLA that we should remember him?’’ asked one, even as two others asked him who was Ansari. “That terrorist caught along with Kasab,’’ the first replied. The conversation drew the attention of several others around. “Ansari never stayed here. You go back,’’ they cautioned. “The room which Ansari had rented is locked. The landlord is fed up with these things and she has gone to Kolhapur,’’ said another youth, refusing to let this correspondent even enter the chawl.

The residents’ fear is not without reason. The 60-year-old chawl made headlines several years ago when a woman was killed there.

Within a couple of minutes, several other boys gathered on the spot and started abusing Ansari and the media, resisting attempts to take photographs of the room where Ansari stayed. “Why are you people defaming our chawl? Why don’t you go to Ansari’s Goregaon residence and enquire there?’’ a resident said. Another was more vocal: “Why doesn’t the media understand these things? You people write anything about our chawl. What does this chawl have to do with Ansari?’’

The Times of India, May 3, 2010