After four years of incarceration, Maulana Naseeruddin’s sons Muqeemuddin Yaser and Baleequddin Jaber have been acquitted by Indore court in Dhar terror conspiracy case
By Mohd. Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad: In a great relief for eminent cleric of Hyderabad Maulana Naseeruddin, his two sons have been acquitted in a terror case by a Madhya Pradesh court. Four years of despair have ended for Muqeemuddin Yaser and Baleequddin Jaber, siblings from Hyderabad as Judge Surender Singh Sasodia of district and sessions court of Indore acquitted them of all charges in the Dhar terror conspiracy case.
Yaser and Jaber are sons of Hyderabad cleric and president of Wahdat-e-Islmai Maulana Naseeruddin who himself was recently acquitted in terror cases related to Gujarat.
Yaser, the elder brother was arrested on July 2008 and Jaber in September the same year. Those were the times when Mecca Masjid arresting had ended and slowly curtains were falling off from the police theories of the Masjid blast. Interestingly the duo was arrested in that period in the crumbling Mecca Masjid blast case.
Maulana Naseeruddin, an eminent Hyderabad cleric – TCN photo
A curious turn of events occurred as few months after their arrest by Hyderabad police in Mecca Masjid blast case they were given into the custody of Madhya Pradesh police and shifted to Indore prison. Madhya Pradesh police charged them of giving shelter to ex-SIMI president Safdar Nagori in Hyderabad and manufacturing CD based on Gujarat riots for distribution in Madhya Pradesh.
Safdar Nagori was arrested in the Dhar conspiracy case same year just months before their arrest. M.P. police had even claimed that Yaser and Jaber both attended the programs of banned SIMI in Dhar district in 2007, even as family claimed they were present in Hyderabad at that period. The conspiracy case was registered as Cr. No. 120/2008 in Pritampur police station in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh. Both were booked under several sections of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and charged for sedition under sec 124 (A) of I.P.C.
If their arrests were not enthralling enough their legal trail was more mesmerizing. Dhar district court advocates association had given a call in 2008 that they will not allow any advocate from Dhar district or outside Dhar to represent what they called ‘terrorists’ in their court.
Noor Mohammed Khan, advocate based in Ujjain was in fact beaten black and blue in front of the judge when he stood as counsel for Yaser and Jaber. On another occasion when he applied for the bail for the two, he was again beaten so vehemently by advocates of Dhar district court in front of the police; that he fainted due to the injuries inflicted upon him.
When it became impossible for defense lawyers to attend legal proceedings in Dhar district court, the trial was shifted to Indore court. Advocate Wajeed Khan from Indore was fighting the case since then.
During the trial period in Indore Maulana Naseeruddin moved to the Supreme Court, as he felt that trial was going on in slow phase and nearly four years had passed without proper trial. Listening to the appeal of Maulana earlier this year Supreme Court had ordered lower court to complete the trial within six months.
Taking the order of the apex court seriously the trial completed and Yaser and Jaber have now been acquitted as court didn’t find any concrete evidence to convict the siblings in the conspiracy case.
The court has ordered to handover Yaser and Jaber to Andhra Pradesh police as two cases were pending against them in Hyderabad – one is Kalapather conspiracy case (Mecca Masjid blast case) and DGP office protest case. Their father Maulana Naseeruddin has said that Yaser and Jaber have already got bail from courts in both these cases and giving custody to Hyderabad police is unwarranted. He said he is going to file those bail documents from Hyderabad courts in Indore sessions court to obtain their release in Indore itself.
The district and sessions court of Indore, however, has convicted in the Dhar case five persons from Indore allegedly having links with the banned organization SIMI, for keeping deadly weapons, and distributing inflammatory pamphlets.