More than seven years after two men were arrested and imprisoned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, a Delhi court on Thursday acquitted them, noting that the prosecution had failed to prove its charges, reported Live Law.
Additional Sessions Judge Amit Bansal of Patiala House Courts also observed that there was a “great deal of doubt” about the Delhi Police recovering arms and ammunition from the accused, Jamsheed Zahoor Paul and Parvaiz Rashid.
Paul and Rashid were arrested under sections of the anti-terror law pertaining to conspiracy and being a member of a terrorist organisation. They were also charged with illegal possession of firearms or ammunition.
The first information report named two more persons: Asif Nazir Dar and Adil Wani. While Dar died in 2018 before being arrested, Wani remains absconding, reported The Hindu.
The prosecution had claimed that the police received intelligence input about certain persons from Jammu and Kashmir pledging allegiance to the terrorist group Islamic State and procuring weapons from Uttar Pradesh.
Acting on this information, the police arrested Paul and Rashid near Jama Masjid in Delhi on September 6, 2018. They allegedly recovered a pistol and five live cartridges from each of the men.
The police also alleged that the men were in contact with other suspected Islamic State operatives and had received funds to procure weapons.
During the trial, the prosecution examined 23 witnesses, including police personnel and forensic experts. Paul and Rashid denied all charges.
Acquitting the two men, the court questioned how the FIR number could be present on documents related to the seizure of the arms.
This indicated that either the FIR was registered before the alleged recovery or the “number of the said FIR was inserted in these documents after its registration and in both situations it seriously reflects upon the veracity of the prosecution version and creates a great deal of doubt”, Live Law quoted the court as saying.
Bansal also questioned why no person present when the pistol and cartridges were recovered had joined the trial as a witness.
This “raises a strong doubt on the prosecution version”, he added.
The court also noted that mobile phones were recovered from the two men on September 7, 2018, and were kept unsealed for nearly two months before being sent for forensic analysis, reported The Hindu.
“It raises a strong doubt of tampering with the said mobile phones,” the court was quoted as saying by Live Law. “In the said circumstances, no reliance whatsoever can be placed on the alleged data.”
The prosecution had also failed to prove that Paul and Rashid were members of the Islamic State, said the court, adding that they are “thus liable to be acquitted”.
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