Bangalore: They were dragged out of their houses five years ago, and were beaten and forced to confess a crime for which the entire nation remembered them with hatred for years. After five years, with three national agencies investigating the case, the nine Muslim youths accused in the Malegaon blast case are back to life now.

The investigation into this controversial case broke the common notion of attributing all kinds of terror attacks to the Muslim community and has revealed the phenomenon called a Hindu Terror which the nation had to accept with pain.

As always, when four bombs went off in the textile town of Malegaon in September 2006, the finger of suspicion was pointed to the Muslim youths and nine youngsters of the community were arrested within a few weeks. After long years of legal battle, a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court had granted them bail and seven of the nine wrongly accused namely Dr. Farogh Iqbal Ahmed Magdumi, Shabbir Ahmed Masiullah, Dr. Salman Farsi Abdul Latif Aimi, Noorul Huda Samsudoha, Raees Ahmed Rajab Ali Mansuri, Abrar Ahmed Gulam Ahmed and Mohammad Zahid Abdul Majid Ansari – walked free to meet their bellowed once on November 5 on. The bail granted on the solvent surety of 50,000 each comes after the investigating agency, National Investigation Agency (NIA), did not oppose their bail pleas.

In a reply filed in the court, NIA said, “During the course of further investigation, the NIA - after revelation of Swami Aseemanand, arrested in Mecca Masjid bomb blast case - reviewed the collected evidence and collected fresh evidence in the form of statements and forensic reports. Further investigation is in progress to collect more evidence for arriving at definitive investigative conclusions.”