An Ahmedabad city sessions court on September 15 acquitted two Kashmir-based clerics who were accused in a 2006 case of allegedly spreading terrorism by training under the aegis of the Lashkar-e-Toiba to carry out “jihadi terrorist attacks” to avenge the loss suffered by Muslims in post-Godhra 2002 riots.
The court of additional sessions judge Prashant Sheth took into account that witness statements did not support the prosecution’s case that the two, in conspiracy with other accused, were planning or were involved in any jihadi terror attacks or were planning any proxy war on behalf of the banned outfits LeT and SIMI.
The two clerics — Bilal Ahmed alias Bilal Kashmiri, arrested in 2021, and Saiyed Zabiuddin, arrested in 2012 — both based in Baramulla, were charged for the offences under IPC sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 121A (conspiring to commit offences against the state), 124 (assault 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 also observed that while Bharat Patel had submitted that he had received prior information on the alleged plan by the accused, the same was not noted in the station diary as it should have been as judicial precedents lay down. Other procedural lapses also included that the Ahmedabad police, while arresting Zabiuddin, who was in judicial custody at New Delhi at the time in relation to another offence, did not record a panch witness and nor were any other witness brought aboard for the trial.
Two chargesheets were filed by DCB, one in 2013 and another in 2021.
A total of 23 were accused in the case. The allegations against the accused, including a child in conflict with law, included affiliation to the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and LeT. It was alleged that the accused had planned 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 DCB police station citing information received through “intelligence sourcing”, as recorded in the court order, stated 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, for which two LeT youth operatives named Imran Kashmiri and Bashir Kashmiri, to prepare Muslim youths in terror activities, were being sent to Kashmir, Pakistan and Bangladesh for training for which they are making the rounds of Ahmedabad to establish a network of terror organisation.”
It was alleged that Ilyas Memon, a Shah Alam area resident in Ahmedabad, was in touch with Imran Kashmiri and is taking terror training in Kashmir and Bangladesh.
A total of 30 prosecution witnesses were examined, including the deposition of then ACP of Ahmedabad city police GL Singhal, who had also investigated the case following the lodging of the FIR.
