BENGALURU: Karnataka HC acquitted Wednesday three convicts, one of them a Pakistani national, serving life sentences in a 2012 terror conspiracy case involving Lashkar.
The division bench of Justices Sreenivas Harish Kumar and JM Khazi ruled that evidence produced by the prosecution against the trio — Syed Abdul Rehman of Bengaluru, Afsar Pasha of Chintamani in Chikkaballapur, and Mohd Fahad Khoya from Karachi — was inadequate to establish their complicity with the outfit in waging war against the state.A trial court had convicted the trio of criminal conspiracy and waging war against the state under UAPA & Explosive Act.
The court upheld Rehman’s conviction under the Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act for illegal possession of a firearm. The case originated from a tip-off purportedly received by crime branch inspector K C Ashokan on May 7, 2012 about Rehman getting introduced to LeT operatives through Pasha and Khoya, both of whom he met in Bengaluru jail after their arrest on different charges.
The prosecution linked all three to a conspiracy allegedly hatched by LeT to recruit Muslim youth for terrorist activities, including blasts in Bengaluru.
A trial court convicted the trio of criminal conspiracy and waging war against the state, for which they were sentenced to life and additional 5-10 years under UAPA and the Explosive Substances Act.
The division bench hearing their appeal pointed out that the UAPA case was not referred to an independent review authority, as mandated by law. “In view of this, the sanction order (to invoke UAPA) loses its sanctity, which the trial court failed to consider,” it said. The court also pointed out that “mere meetings” in jail among the trio and their call details were insufficient to infer conspiracy, and that the evidence did not support their conviction. It directed the state govt to deport Khoya to Pakistan.