Two men, allegedly part of the conspiracy behind the hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight IC-814 to Kandahar in December 1999, will be produced before a Mumbai court this month to stand trial in a dacoity and arms haul case.

DCP (Crime and Detection) Deven Bharati said Abdul Latif and Bhopal Mal alias Yusuf Khan — both are presently lodged in Patiala jail and facing trial in a special CBI court in the hijacking case — were charged with stealing a Maruti van from Orlem in Malad and using it to rob Rs 7 lakh from the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank in Borivli on October 6, 1999.

Along with Latif and Mal, three others —Mohammed Asif, Mohammed Rafiq Haji (both Pakistanis) and Mustaq Azmi — were arrested on December 30, 1999 and charged in the robbery and arms haul case. Azmi was accused of harbouring the accused before the dacoity. “We had recovered $6,000 from the accused and were trying to establish that this money was used for hawala transactions and was related to the hijacking case. But we didn’t have the evidence,” said Bharati.

The Mumbai Police crime branch, as per the chargesheet, also found the accused in possession of two AK-56 rifles, seven grenades and four rocket-launcher missiles when they arrested them. After Latif and Mal were arrested in the hijacking case and sent to Patiala, their trial in the dacoity and arms haul case was separated from that of Asif and Haji. Azmi was later released on bail.

... contd.