A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court in Mumbai on Thursday convicted 12 out of the 22 accused in the Aurangabad arms haul case.
Among the 12 convicted is key LeT operative and 26/11 plotter Abu Jundal. The case is related to seizure of huge amount of arms, ammunition and explosives by the anti-terrorism squad in 2006. While delivering the judgement, the judge held that the seized ammo was part of a larger conspiracy in which the accused wanted to target public figures such as the then chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi. The detailed reasoning order is likely to be available on Friday.
Though the court has convicted 12 accused under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities [Prevention] (UAPA) Act, in a setback to prosecution, the judge held that, “The prosecution has failed to prove charges of MCOCA,” and acquitted all accused, including Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal from MCOCA.
The prosecution case is that the accused were hatching a conspiracy from 1996 to 2006. The police had claimed that the purpose of accused to procure arms, ammunition and explosives in such a large quantity was to shake and reduce the faith of common citizen in its elected democratic government by large scale violence, destruction of lives and property and destabilise the system of government.
The court, while delivering judgment said, “The court has accepted the contention of prosecution that the seized weapons were part of a larger conspiracy and the accused wanted to target the then chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi and leader of a Hindu outfit Pravin Togadia, as they wanted to take revenge for what had happened after the Godhra incident.”
The court also accepted the prosecution’s case that weaponry that the ATS intercepted from two cars had originally been procured from Pakistan. According to the police, the convicts wanted to exploit the communal sentiments of Muslims and provoke them in the name of religion in order to resort to terrorist acts.
