Srinagar: A court in Gujarat has acquitted two clerics from Baramulla district in north Kashmir in a 2006 terrorism case.
The duo was accused of spreading terrorism by receiving training under the Lashkar-e-Toiba to carry out terrorist attacks in Gujarat.
Ahmedabad City Additional Sessions Court Judge Prashant Sheth ordered the acquittal of the two clerics after considering that witness statements did not support the prosecution’s case.
There was no evidence that the two, in conspiracy with other accused, were planning or involved in any jihadi terror attacks or were planning any proxy war on behalf of the banned outfits LeT and SIMI, he said, reported The Indian Express.
The two clerics — Bilal Ahmed, also known as Bilal Kashmiri, arrested in 2021, and Saiyed Zabiuddin, arrested in 2012 from Baramulla — were charged with offenses under IPC sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 121A (conspiring to commit offenses against the state), 124 (assault on the president, governor, etc., with intent to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power), and under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in an FIR based on a complaint by Bharat Patel, the then sub-inspector of Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB), in 2006.
The court questioned Bharat Patel’s claim that he had received prior information about the alleged plan by the accused, as it was not noted down in the station diary, as per the laid judicial precedents.
The Ahmedabad court also pointed out procedural lapses, such as not recording a panch witness and not bringing any other witnesses on board for the trial when arresting Zabiuddin, who was in judicial custody in New Delhi at the time in relation to another offense.
The Ahmedabad court examined 30 prosecution witnesses, including the then ACP of Ahmedabad city police, GL Singhal, who had also investigated the case following the lodging of the FIR.
The DCB had filed two charge sheets, one in 2013 and another in 2021. There were 23 accused in the case, and the allegations against the accused included affiliation with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and LeT, with plans to wreak havoc and “kill national dignitaries in Gujarat.”
Two accused were acquitted by a sessions court in March 2021, while another was acquitted in April 2022.
The FIR filed at the DCB police station cites information received through “intelligence sourcing,” as recorded in the court order, stating that “Muslim youths from Kashmir and other states were involved in terror activities, and their contacts and allies were active in Ahmedabad and elsewhere in Gujarat. Two LeT youth operatives named Imran Kashmiri and Bashir Kashmiri were sent to Kashmir, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to prepare Muslim youths in terror activities. They were making rounds in Ahmedabad to establish a network of a terror organization.”
According to the FIR, it was also alleged that Ilyas Memon, a resident of Shah Alam area in Ahmedabad, was in touch with Imran Kashmiri and was receiving terror training in Kashmir and Bangladesh.
