Men who Akhilesh wants released

AHMED HASAN ( BABU)

On June 21,2002,the police arrested two alleged Pakistani spies,Ahmed Hasan alias Babu and his neighbour Wasif from near a railway station in Bijnore. The police claimed to have recovered maps indicating movement of the Indian Army. They were booked under the Official Secrets Act. The chargesheet was filed on March 23,2003. Both are out on bail. Ahmed was released on bail after spending three months in prison. On January 1,2013,the government ordered withdrawal of case against Ahmed. The application has not been filed in the court as yet. Ahmed,now 48 years old,was a truck driver when the police arrested him. Currently,he runs a shop from his house in Bijnore. He has three children and the eldest is 24 years old.

Ahmed claimed that the police had wrongly framed him because he had visited Pakistan to meet a relative. “The police picked me up from my house on June 18 and later showed me as arrested on June 21 from near the railway station. The map which the police claimed to have recovered from me is available in the market,” he said.

MAQSOOD, JAVED (GUDDU) & TAJ MOHAMMAD

The government has ordered withdrawal of case against the three alleged terror accused who were booked under various charges by the Rampur police in 2002. On April 18,the government ordered the Rampur District Magistrate to file an application in the court requesting withdrawal of case against them. But no application has been filed as yet in the court. All three are lodged in the Rampur District Jail. The police had alleged that they had passed sensitive details regarding the Indian Army to Pakistan,and maps of military installations were recovered from their possessions. The police chargesheeted them under POTA,Section 121 and 21A of the IPC. The case was transferred to the Moradabad court from Rampur after POTA was invoked against them.

On August 13,2002,the UP Special Task Force arrested Javed alias Guddu,his neighbours Taj Mohammad,Maqsood and Mumtaz Mian from Kashipur area under Ganj police station in Rampur for leaking Indian military secrets to Pakistan. The police said that Javed had visited Pakistan where he had an affair with a girl who was working for the ISI. The police said that information to Pakistan was sent through fax and email. The others allegedly helped Javed in his anti-national activities,the police said.

Javed’s father Mohammad Shafiq,79,said that his son used to run a shop before the police arrested him. “The police picked him from his shop on August 10,2002,but in their records showed him as arrested on August 13,” he said.

YAKOOB & NASIR HUSSAIN

The government ordered withdrawal of two cases each against Yakoob and Nasir. The two alleged HuJI militants were arrested from two different localities of Lucknow on June 21,2007. Residents of Bijnore,Yakoob and Nasir are accused of supplying RDX across the country and were reportedly caught by the police along with explosives. The cases filed against them pertained to waging war against the country and under the Explosives Act. Both are lodged at Lucknow District Jail. On April 18,the state government directed the Lucknow DM to file a withdrawal application in the court. The application regarding Nasir’s case was filed on June 2 and that of Yakoob on June 6. The applications are pending in the court.

Nasir’s lawyer Syed Ehsan Abbas Rizvi said that the police had wrongly showed his arrest from Lucknow. “On June 19,the police brought him from Uttarakhand’s Tehri Garhwal district where he was helping a contractor in renovating an ashram. The head of the ashram has given a statement in the court that on June 19,2007,he saw people kidnapping Nasir,” said Syed Ehsan Abbas Rizvi.

Yakoob,38,is married and has four children; the eldest is 10 years old.

MOHAMMAD KALEEM & SYED ABDUL MOBEEN

They were booked by the police for their alleged involvement in the blast which took place near Sahkarita Bhawan in Lucknow on August 15,2000. The police arrested Mohammad Kaleem from Srinagar where he was teaching in a school,while Syed Abdul Mobeen was booked while he was already lodged in a jail in connection with another case. The trial has already begun. Their lawyers said that the only evidence against them is their confession. On April 18,the government ordered that the case against Kaleem and Mobeen — both out on bail — be withdrawn. No application has been filed in the court. Kaleem,38,said the police had falsely implicated him,and he got bail after 14 months in jail. Mobeen got bail in 2006.

MUKHTAR HUSSAIN,

MOHAMMAD ALI AKBAR,

AJIJUR REHMAN,NAUSHAD HAFIZ & NOOR ISLAM

On April 15,the UP government ordered withdrawal of case against these five alleged HuJI operatives. A case was lodged against them in August,2008 at Wazirganj police station in Lucknow. They were accused of raising anti-national slogans when produced before a court. The police have filed chargesheet against them and the trial has begun. Except Naushad,the others are from West Bengal. The government’s plea to withdraw the case has not been moved in the court,said their lawyer Mohammad Shoaib. They are booked under different sections of the IPC,including 153A,124A and 109. All five are lodged at the Lucknow District Jail.

The police had arrested Naushad,a resident of Bijnor,along with alleged HuJI area commander Jalaluddin alias Babu Bhai on June 23,2007. The police claimed that the duo had come from Bengal along with Mukhtar Hussain,Mohammad Ali Akbar and Ajijur Rehman. The police said that while waiting for Naushad and Babu Bhai,the three men got to know of their arrest while watching TV at a tea stall. They went to a place near the SGPGI in Mohanlalganj,Lucknow,and buried 10 hand grenades,10 detonators and nine rods of explosives at a construction site and returned to Bengal. The police claimed that they arrested the three HuJI operatives from West Bengal with the help of the local police,brought them here,recovered the explosives they had hidden near SGPGI,and booked them under the Explosives Act and the Unlawful Activities Act. The fifth accused,Noor Islam,was arrested in July,2007 from West Bengal.

Mukhtar Hussain’s brother Sheikh Ansar said,“We have no information how the police framed him in the case.”

Ali Akbar’s father Altaf Hussain said that he had no knowledge how the police got him associated with

terror groups.

IMTIYAZ ALI

He was arrested in September,2009 for allegedly spying for Pakistan’s intelligence agency. The police claimed that he was on the ISI payroll,getting Rs 5,000 per month. The ATS recovered eight SIM cards and documents having details of Indian Army from his possession. He was chargesheeted under various sections of the IPC,including 420,467,468,471,115. The trial has begun. He is lodged in Kanpur’s District Jail. The government issued direction on April 18,2013 to Kanpur DM to file a withdrawal application in the court. The application has not been filed as yet. A native of Jhansi’s Mauranipur,Imtiyaz (48) was arrested from Kanpur. The police said that they had been trailing him after coming across frequent phone calls being made to Pakistan from Jhansi,and the accused passing information about day-to-day development in the cantonment area. The police said that Imtiyaz had returned from Pakistan in February 2009,and had been asked to recruit spies to collect information about Army stations at Agra,Mathura and Meerut. Imtiyaz,a mechanic,reportedly told his interrogators that he had joined the ISI to earn money for his son’s admission in a private engineering college.

SHAMIM (SARFARAZ)

A native of Chandauli’s Launda village,Shamim is accused of planting a bomb at a public place in Varanasi in 2006. The bomb,which did not explode,was found soon after the twin blasts at Sankatmochan Mandir and Varanasi Cantt Railway Station in which 21 persons died on March 7,2006. The third bomb was planted near Jamuna Fatak in Godaulia locality under Dasaswamedh police circle.

The Uttar Pradesh STF arrested Waliullah,the Imam of a mosque in Allahabad’s Phoolpur area,on April 5,2006,and said that he was the mastermind in the case.

The police claimed that the blasts were executed by three men from Bangladesh with whom Waliullah had studied at Deoband. While Waliullah is now lodged at Dasna jail in Ghaziabad,the trio were never caught. In December 2006,the police named Shamim in the chargesheet in the Godaulia case. Shamim was never caught.

In 2008,after the arrest of some alleged Indian Mujahideen members,the police said that the Varanasi blasts were jointly conducted by the HuJI and IM. Mohammad Saif,who was arrested after the Batla House encounter in New Delhi on September 19,2008,reportedly admitted that he had planted the bomb at Godaulia. The police have not filed a chargesheet against him yet.

MOHAMMAD TARIQ QASMI & KHALID MUJAHID

On March 5,2013,the government issued direction to the Gorakhpur DM to file application in the court for withdrawal of case against alleged HuJI operative Tariq Qasmi in connection with the 2007 serial blasts in Gorakhpur. Six persons were injured in the blast. Lodged in Lucknow District Jail,Tariq faced charges under the Explosives Act,Section 7 of Criminal Law Amendment Act,and attempt to murder. A Unani doctor from Azamgarh,he is married and has four children.

Qasmi is also facing trial in the cases of serial blasts which took place in the courts of Faizabad and Lucknow on November 23,2007. The state government’s plea to withdraw the case is pending in the court.

The UP Police’s Special Task Force had arrested Qasmi and another alleged HuJI operative Khalid Mujahid,a madrasa teacher from Jaunpur,outside the Barabanki railway station on December 20,2007,and claimed to have seized 1.250 kg RDX,six detonators,three cellphones and two SIM cards. Both were booked for the serial blasts in courts.

Later,the police claimed it had found Qasmi’s involvement in the Gorakhpur blast as well,and filed the chargesheet against him.

Qasmi’s father-in-law Mohammad Aslam said that he was falsely implicated in the case and the government must consider the RD Nimesh Inquiry Commission report.

On May 3,government counsel V K Dwivedi filed an application requesting for withdrawal of the case against Qasmi and Mujahid.

On May 10,the court rejected the government’s plea on the ground that there was no public interest in withdrawing the case. The UP Police had already filed chargesheet against Qasmi and Mujahid.

The state government removed V K Dwivedi for reportedly not putting up the case properly. The state government on April 18,2013 issued order to withdraw the case.

District Government Counsel,Barabanki,B S Yadav said that an appeal has been filed against the rejection of withdrawal application.

On May 18,Khalid Mujahid died while he was being brought to Lucknow after appearing in a court in Faizabad. The state government offered his family monetary relief of Rs 6 lakh,but they turned it down. On the basis of a complaint filed by the family,an FIR against 42 persons,including senior police officers,was lodged. The state government also recommended a CBI investigation.

Tariq Qasmi is lodged in Lucknow Jail. Defence counsel R S Suman said that the trial of the case has begun.

The family members of Qasmi and Mujahid alleged that before the police claimed to have arrested them,the families had sent complaints to the district magistrate of Azamgarh,offices of the Prime Minister,Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and the National Human Rights Commission. Following protests,the previous BSP government had set up the RD Nimesh Inquiry Commission to probe into the allegations. Last year,the commission submitted its report to the government stating that the police’s claims regarding the date,place and timing of the arrests appear to be ‘doubtful’.

Juvenile

On April 18,the government issued instruction to withdraw case against a terror accused whose trial is pending before the Juvenile Justice Board in Kanpur. He is facing trial for alleged involvement in a bomb blast which occurred at Kanpur’s Arya Nagar crossing in 2000. A native of Kanpur,he was 15-year-old when the blast took place. The police booked him under the Explosives Act and on charges of attempt to murder,sedition,and waging war against the state. He was arrested by UP’s Anti-Terrorist Squad from Mumbai in February 2011.

His lawyer Azizul Rehman said that as per the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act,the maximum punishment that can be awarded is three years. The board granted him bail after six months, Rehman added.

SITARA BEGUM

She faces charges of waging war against the state and knowingly helping an alleged Pakistani spy who was arrested by UP’s Anti-Terrorist Squad from Kanpur’s Bithoor area in May 2009. The state government ordered the police to move withdrawal application in the case on April 18,2013. The application is yet to be filed.

The police alleged that Sitara had sheltered one Waqas Ahmed of Lahore in her house. Later,Waqas married her daughter Shabana. A native of Khanpur in Auraiya district,Sitara,50,is currently in Kanpur Jail. The police have booked her under Sections 115,121 and123 of the IPC.