New Delhi: Two alleged operatives of Indian Mujahideen, Tehseen Akhtar and Zia-ur-Rehman, were on Friday discharged by a Delhi court in a case relating to the terror group's conspiracy to carry out strikes in the national capital.
Akhtar, who was alleged to be the IM India chief after the arrest of IM co-founder Yasin Bhatkal, and Pakistani national Zia-ur-Rehman alias Waqas were discharged by the court due to lack of evidence against them.
The court, however, framed charges against five accused under the provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Explosive Substances Act and under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
The five accused, Syed Maqbool, Imran Khan, Asad Khan, Syed Feroz and Irfan Mustafa were put on trial after they pleaded not guilty to the charges framed against them and the court has now fixed the matter for recording of evidence on March 28.
The Special Cell of Delhi Police had chargesheeted these accused alleging that they had conspired to carry out terror strikes in the national capital.
It had alleged that a conspiracy was hatched by the Pune module of the banned terror outfit. Akhtar, Waqas, Maqbool and Imran are also accused in other terror related cases.
During the arguments on framing of charges, advocate M S Khan, who had represented Akhtar and Waqas, had countered the allegations levelled by police and had said that there was no evidence against his clients and they were falsely implicated in the case. The other accused had also denied the allegations leveled against them.
Akhtar was arrested on March 25, 2014 from near Kakarvitta Indo-Nepal border in Darjeeling district of West Bengal while Waqas was arrested outside Ajmer Railway Station on March 22, 2014. The other accused were arrested during the investigation of the case.
