By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net
Aurangabad special sessions court has acquitted four Muslim youth from terror charges in a judgement on October 3.
The accused Shaker Khilji, Abrar Shaikh, Zafar Qureshi and Anwar Khatri were arrested in relation to Himayat Baugh encounter case, which happened on March 26, 2012, in which Maharashtra ATS gunned down Azhar Khatri on the spot.
The accused were tried under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (UAPA), Sections 307, 353 and 34 of IPC, and sections 3, 25 of Arms act in Aurangabad special sessions court.
The case was running a slow pace until on the accused’s demands Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra took over the case in March 2017.
Judge of the case VV Patil put the case on timed and fast proceedings by calling the witnesses and accused to appear on regular basis on September 11 this year.
The judgment which came yesterday has acquitted all the four accused from UAPA but has convicted Shaker Khilji and Abrar Shaikh in the IPC section 307 only.
Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra has expressed happiness over the verdict and has said that it is hoping that the remaining charges will be dropped from the remaining ones very soon.
Hafiz Nadeem Siddiqui, President Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra said, “This is a big success for the community where all the accused have been acquitted of terrorism charges. It has once again proved that our organization is fighting for the innocents.”
“Our legal team is confident that even the conviction of two accused under sections of IPC will not survive before High Court and hence we will soon file an appeal against their conviction,” he added.
The prosecution failed to provide any evidence regarding the charges which the accused were facing.
The accused have been facing charges in relation to Ahmedabad bomb blast case 2008. Based on the input, Maharashtra ATS conducted a raid in Himayat Baugh locality of Aurangabad in 2012, in which one accused was killed. The investigation of this case was led by the CID.