The Mazgaon Sessions Court today discharged three suspects arrested by the Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Mumbai Police in the July 11 serial blasts case.

The magistrate ordered the three, Mumtaz Ahmed Maqbool Ahmed Choudhary, Khalid Aziz Sheikh and Tohfooq Akmal Hashemi, discharged after the ATS submitted a report under saying there was no evidence to book them in the case.

“We could not find sufficient evidence to prove they were involved in the serial blasts,” said Additional Commissioner of Police, ATS, Jai Jeet Singh.

Hashemi was touted as a major catch when he was flown down to the city from Kashmir by an ATS team. Allegedly an Al-Badr divisional commander, he was arrested on August 22 by the Rashtriya Rifles from a forest hideout in the Nadimarg area of Kulgam. He was arrested by Mumbai Police on September 3.

During interrogation in Kashmir, police had claimed, he had said that Lashkar commander Abdul Tariq had told him that the Mumbai blasts were carried out by Lashkar operatives.

Mumtaz Chowdhary, an Urdu tutor, was arrested by the ATS from Navi Mumbai on July 21. His brother-in-law Kamal Ansari was arrested from a village in Bihar’s Madhubani district the same day. Police had claimed that rail timetables were seized from him and he was a “conspirator and planner.”

Khalid Sheikh was arrested from the same village along with Ansari. At the time, the ATS had claimed that he had provided logistical support to the perpetrators of the blasts.