MUMBAI: In a major setback to Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), a local court on Saturday acquitted Maulana Ghulam Yahya Baksh, the imam of the mosque at Haj House in Mumbai, of charges that he harbored three Kashmiri militants in 2006 and had links with the outlawed Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
He was set free due to lack of evidence. The court has, however, convicted three militants. Haj House, an iconic structure in south Mumbai, is adjacent to the Chhatrapti Shivaji Terminus, which was attacked by terrorists in November 2008.
Baksh was arrested by the ATS for providing shelter to three men in Haj House — Mohammed Ramzan Abdul Wahab, Khurshid Ahmed Abdul Gani Lone and Arshad Hussain Badru Hussain, all from Kashmir. They were arrested on Jan. 6, 2006, at Bombay Central Railway Station.
Baksh and the three Kashmiris were charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). S.D. Agarwal, additional sessions judge at Sewree Court, acquitted Baksh after observing that the prosecution failed to prove its case. The court, however, convicted the three Kashmiris of various charges and sentenced them to seven years in jail. According to the prosecution, Baksh was a link between Salahuddin, the Lashkar commander in Kashmir, and the alleged militants.
The prosecution claimed that the investigating agency seized detonators, timers and electronic devices from the three militants. It was alleged that the imam had harbored them at Haj House.
The special public prosecutor, Raj Thackeray, pressed the court to hand the three men stricter punishments. He told the court that the offense was not spontaneous but premeditated, and that the explosives would have made society suffer. The defense lawyers pleaded for a lesser punishment citing family reasons and the time the accused have already spent on remand.
The court observed there was no sufficient evidence proving the conspiracy charge. The judge said the only evidence is the explosives found in their possession. The prosecution also failed to prove their link to any terror outfit or previous involvement in terrorism and so the three Kashmiris were found guilty of the specific charge of possessing explosives and criminal conspiracy to commit terrorist acts.
During the course of the trial, the prosecution examined 23 witnesses. All the four accused had been kept in custody as their application for bail was rejected.
