Hyderabad: Hours after a firing in Hyderabad's Old City area that killed a city policeman, police apprehended Mohd Rayees - by barging into his home at midnight and picking him up.
"He now has a family, a small baby girl. Treating him like a terrorist, without any reason, is not correct," Rayees' brother Jameel said.
Rayees was arrested after the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast but the court later acquitted him of all charges.
Speaking to NDTV just 10 days ago, Rayees had said that with the CBI indicating that it suspects the hand of a radical Hindu group in the blast, his claim to innocence was vindicated.
"I feel reassured that at least now people who would have thought that I must have been involved will realise that what the CBI is saying is true. That they can't pick anyone off the street and blame the blast on him," he had said.
But his happiness was short-lived. Even after being let off by the court, his ordeal with the police continued. "Whenever there is trouble, or tension, the police will come looking for me," he said.
NDTV has also learnt that the police picked up more than a dozen youth from the Old City area.
"Always suspicion on certain individuals and certain groups would be more compared to others. But we are not foreclosing other suspects," Hyderabad Police Commissioner A K Khan says.
A note in the CD recovered from Friday's incident site points to resentment against the city police and claims it is to avenge police firing that killed five people after the Mecca Masjid blast.
The Hyderabad police commissioner has clarified that Friday's firing was a pointed attack on security personnel and not the general public. So there was no need for the public to unduly worry. But the anger against the police and the threat that such targetted attacks on policemen will continue is certainly reason to worry.