A Delhi court has found neither material evidence to prove the accused’s links with banned organisations such as the Indian Mujahideen and the Students Islamic Movement of India, nor any evidence that they had entered into a conspiracy against the sovereignty and security of the country, apart from confessional statements made to the police, while acquitting Abdul Subhan Qureshi and Ariz Khan in a case related to an alleged bid to revive the outlawed outfits.
The order was passed by Additional Sessions Judge Amit Bansal of the Patiala House Courts, who acquitted Qureshi and Khan in a case registered in 2014 under Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which deals with conspiracy relating to terrorist acts, and Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code for criminal conspiracy, after holding that the prosecution had failed to place any admissible material on record to raise even a grave suspicion against them.
Abdul Subhan Qureshi, who has been described by investigating agencies as a key Indian Mujahideen operative allegedly linked to the 2006 Mumbai suburban train blasts and the 2008 Gujarat serial blasts, was arrested from the Ghazipur area of East Delhi on January 23, 2018, while his associate Ariz Khan, who was reported to have fled the country following the 2008 Batla House encounter, was apprehended from the India–Nepal border on February 14, 2018, The Indian Express reported.
In examining the charge sheet, the court noted that the prosecution case rested primarily on disclosure and confessional statements allegedly made by the accused while in police custody, along with a compilation of other criminal cases and copies of charge sheets in which the two men were involved, and it held that such material could not sustain the charges in the absence of any legally admissible corroboration.
The court observed that under settled principles of law, confessional or disclosure statements made to police officers, or while an accused is in police custody, are inadmissible unless they lead to the discovery of a relevant fact, and it found that in the present case no such discovery had taken place pursuant to the statements attributed to Qureshi and Khan.
It further held that merely producing a list of other cases against the accused and copies of charge sheets from those cases could not establish their involvement in the alleged conspiracy in the present matter, particularly when the witness list largely comprised duty officers and record clerks summoned only to formally prove earlier FIRs.
According to the prosecution, the case stemmed from intelligence inputs gathered after an accidental blast in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh, on September 12, 2014, following which renewed efforts were made in Delhi and adjoining districts to trace absconding SIMI operatives and their alleged associates, leading to information that some suspects were planning attacks in the National Capital Region.
However, the court concluded that these allegations were not supported by admissible evidence, and it directed that both Abdul Subhan Qureshi and Ariz Khan be released from judicial custody if they were not required to be detained in connection with any other pending cases, while noting that proceedings against them in other matters would continue separately.