The Law Department has already received detailed reports from district officials in the cases of UP court blasts, the Gorakhpur blasts, and the attack on the CRPF came in Rampur. The report from Varanasi is awaited. These reports contain details of the cases, their status, and the opinions of the district magistrates, SPs and prosecution officers whether the cases could be withdrawn in public interest. Except the case of Gorakhpur blasts, the trial of the accused is currently on in all other cases. In two of three cases registered after the Varanasi blasts, the trial has been completed and the judgement is awaited.
Sources said a meeting of top officials from the Chief Minister secretariat, the Law Department, the Home Department, the DGP headquarters and the prosecution is likely to be held after Diwali. During the election campaign, the Samajwadi Party had promised to withdraw ‘false terror cases’ lodged against Muslim youths.
Details of the cases:
*In Varanasi, three cases were registered after blasts at Sankatmochan temple, Cantonment railway station and Godaulia market on March 7, 2006, leading to the death of 21 persons and injuries to 70.
Waliullah of Allahabad, who is an alleged operative of Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HuJI), was arrested by the Varanasi police in Gosainganj area of Lucknow on April 5, 2006. The police claimed that three accused were involved in triggering the blasts. Another accused Shamim of Chandauli district is absconding while the third one is yet to be identified.
The trial in these cases were transferred from Varanasi to a Ghaziabad court after a group of lawyers attacked Waliullah on the court premises on May 3, 2006. Waliullah’s counsel Iliyas Chaudhary said that the government’s move to withdraw the cases at this stage appeared to be futile as the trial in two cases have already completed.
*In the attack on the CRPF camp at Rampur, seven CRPF men and a rickshaw puller were killed and 20 persons injured. The accused include two Pakistani nationals — Imran Shahzad and Mohammad Farooq — and five Indians, namely Sabauddin, Mohammad Sharif, Jung Bahadur Khan alias Baba, Mohammad Kausar and Gulab Khan.
The Special Task Force, which arrested them, said they all were LeT operatives. Sabauddin belongs to Bihar, while others are natives of different districts of UP. The trial is going on and statements of witnesses are being recorded. Sources said the evidence against the accused includes the ballistic report which confirmed that the shells recovered from the spot were fired with the A-K series rifle recovered from the possession of the accused.
*Serial blasts took place in the local courts of Lucknow, Barabanki, and Faizabad on November 23, 2007. While the blast in Lucknow did not cause much damage, five persons died in Faizabad and nine in Varanasi . Two alleged HuJI operatives Tariq Kazmi of Azamgarh and Khalid Mujahid of Jaunpur, and Akhtar of Jammu and Kashmir are accused in the Lucknow and Faizabad court blast cases. They have been chargesheeted and their trial is underway.
The STF had claimed to have arrested Tariq and Khalid from outside the Barabanki railway station on December 20, 2007, and seized 1.250 kg RDX, six detonators, three cellphones and two SIM cards. Few days later, Sajjad-ur- Rahman and Akhtar, both from Jammu and Kashmir, were also arrested. The family members of Tariq and Khalid alleged that they were actually picked up from their native places in Azamgarh and Jaunpur much before the police showed their arrest.
Both Kazmi and Mujahid are facing trial in Barabanki, Faizabad and Lucknow. In the Lucknow case, the court had discharged Sajjad-ur- Rahman on April 14 last year for want of evidence, while the trial against him is on in the Faizabad case.
*Three blasts took place in Golghar area of Gorakhpur, injuring six persons on May 23 in 2007. Tariq Kazmi of UP court blast case was named in Gorakhpur case too, but he is yet to be summoned for trial.