23 September, Srinagar: In a 2006 terrorist case, two clerics from the north Kashmiri region of Baramulla were exonerated by a Gujarati court in western India.
By obtaining training from Lashkar-e-Toiba to conduct out terrorist strikes in Gujarat, the pair was charged with propagating terrorism.
The two clergymen were found not guilty after Ahmedabad City Additional Sessions Court Judge Prashant Sheth decided that the testimony of the witnesses did not support the prosecution’s case.
According to The Indian Express, he said there was no proof the two were conspiring with other accused parties to plot or carry out any jihadi terror operations or engage in any proxy wars on behalf of the outlawed LeT and SIMI.
The two clerics were charged with offences under IPC sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 121A (conspiring to commit offences 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 a FIR based on a complaint. Bilal Ahmed, also known as Bilal Kashmiri, was arrested in 20
The allegation that Bharat Patel had prior knowledge of the accused’s claimed plot was challenged by the court since it was not recorded in the station diary in accordance with established legal norms.
The Ahmedabad court also drew attention to procedural errors that occurred during the arrest of Zabiuddin, who was at the time being held in judicial custody in New Delhi in connection with another offence, including the failure to record a panch witness and the failure to call any more witnesses for the trial.
The Ahmedabad court heard testimony from 30 witnesses for the prosecution, including GL Singhal, the former ACP of the Ahmedabad municipal police, who had also looked into the issue after the FIR was filed.
Two charge sheets have been submitted by the DCB, one in 2013 and the other in 2021. The case had 23 defendants, and the defendants were accused of having connections to the illegal Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and LeT as well as plots to cause mayhem and “kill national dignitaries in Gujarat.”
A sessions court found two of the defendants not guilty in March 2021, while another defendant was found not guilty in April 2022.
The court order is referenced in the FIR filed at the DCB police station, which states 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.” The information was obtained through “intelligence sourcing,” according to the information recorded in the court order. Imran Kashmiri and Bashir Kashmiri, two LeT youth operatives, were sent to Kashmir, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to train Muslim youngsters in terrorism. They were moving throughout Ahmedabad to create a network for a terrorist group.
Ilyas Memon, a resident of Ahmedabad’s Shah Alam neighbourhood, was allegedly in contact with Imran Kashmiri and was undergoing terrorist training in Bangladesh and Kashmir, according to the FIR.
