Nine acquitted in terror conspiracy case

AHMEDABAD: A local court here today acquitted nine persons including five from Hyderabad in a terror conspiracy case.

The accused were charged for undertaking terrorist activity backed by ISI and hatching a conspiracy to avenge 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.

Additional Sessions judge A H Shah while acquitting the nine accused, observed that the investigating agency was not able to prove the alleged charges of criminal conspiracy against them.

Advocate Illiyas Khan, representing the accused, said that the court pronounced the 125-page judgement inside the Sabarmati Central jail where trial was conducted.

Khan said that the court observed that no documentary evidence was put before it by the prosecution to prove the charges under section 120B (conspiracy), 121, 122, 123 (related to waging war against nation) of the IPC.

There was also no recovery of weapons, or proof of use of weapons by the accused, Khan said, which led to the acquittal.

They were accused of going to Pakistan to take terror training and hatched a plot to kill state leaders including Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. They were also accused of hatching terror conspiracy in the state.

Those acquitted include Mohammad Abdul Bari, Eftekar ul-Hassan Hasmi, Mohammd Saifuddin, Adbul Rahim Hansi Muslim and Mufti Sayyed Akbar from Hyderabad. .

Besides, there were Mohammad Ali, Javed Khan and Ahmed Hussain Mansuir from Ahmedabad and Ashraf Nagori from Surat.

The case was filed in 2003 by the city crime branch against over 60 persons under POTA for undertaking terrorist activity and hatching a larger conspiracy to avenge 2002 riots. However, the trial commenced against 56 persons in a special Pota court.

Two accused Mohammed Abdul Rauf and Asghar Ali were discharged from the case by the court since they were convicted in Haren Pandya murder case.

Pota charges were against 10 other accused which include nine who were acquitted today, after Gujarat High Court upheld the Pota Review Committee's recommendations and ordered to separate their trial. Out of the ten, H N Jhala, an advocate by profession died during the course of trial.

A separate trial was conducted for the nine in a regular court while trial against 44 other accused was conducted in a Special POTA court.

In January this year the Special Pota court had convicted 22 people under section 3(1)(a), 3(3) and 4 of Pota, and acquitted 22 others.

Three PMK Mlas R K R Anandaraman, P K Arulmurugan and G.Panneerselvam- were among those taken into custody, police said.