On September 14, I entered Bharat Nagar office of the Special Cell to enquire about my friend Yaseen, and then, they did not allow me to walk out,” said Shaji Yusuf, recalling his 16-day ordeal. He was released from Tihar Jail after being granted bail by a city court on Saturday.

Yusuf, an Intel employee, and his friend Mohammed Yaseen, who works for IBM, were arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell on charges of “abducting” Dr Madhumita Mishra, a married doctor working with Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital.

Yaseen was picked up from the IBM office in Bangalore on September 11 while his friend Shaji Yusuf was arrested four days later from Delhi.

Yaseen’s brother Yasser and Yusuf’s father Yusuf Kunju stood in front of the Tihar gate on Monday evening, waiting for them.

The two finally came out at 9:45 pm and within seconds, Yaseen melted in the crowd. When contacted, he refused to say anything about the incident. “I have just come out of an ordeal and there is nothing I want to say,” he told The Indian Express.

Yusuf narrated his side of the story: “On September 11, Yaseen’s wife Khadija called me to say that Yaseen was missing. I contacted his office, but he wasn’t there. I couldn’t even see his car anywhere. I thought he might have met with an accident. Then his manager called to tell me that 10-12 men had come and taken him with them.”

Yusuf took investigating officer V N Jha’s phone number from Khadija and called him up. “I called him to enquire about Yaseen. And instead, I ended up having a heated debate with him. Although he did not threaten me directly, but there was something about the conversation that frightened me,” said Yusuf.

... contd.