Three persons arrested by the Ahmedabad City Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) in 2002 on charges of plotting the assassination of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and VHP leader Pravin Togadiya have been acquitted.

Additional Sessions Judge I B Vaghela acquitted them on the ground that the DCB had failed to provide enough evidence against them.

The three have been identified as Shahid Bakshi from Ahmedabad, and Farhan Shaikh and Hafiz Mohammed Tahir from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh.

The three were first arrested by the Delhi Police in 2002. The Delhi Police had arrested Bakshi with RDX, and his arrest led to the arrest of the other two. The DCB filed a case against the three after the Delhi Police came to Gujarat for investigation.

The three were accused of sending 33 riot-affected youths from Gujarat to Pakistan via Moradabad for terrorist training to avenge the Gujarat riots.

They were also accused of conspiring to kill Modi and Togadiya to avenge the killing of Muslims in the 2002 riots.

Another person, Abdul Haleem, was arrested by the DCB last July in connection with the case in the wake of the July 26 Ahmedabad serial blasts.

Haleem is accused of helping the three to scout the riot-affected youths to be sent for terrorist training.