The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has dropped terror charges against four Muslim men after they found no evidence against them. The agency had arrested the youth accusing them of planning terror attacks in the National Capital Region and attempting to establish an “Islamic State caliphate”.
The four were released from prison earlier this month after serving time for six months.
A senior government official said no evidence was found against Mohammad Irshad, Raees Ahmad, Zaid Malik, and Mohamamd Azam, The Hindu reported. “The NIA said in court that sufficient evidence was not found against them but investigations will continue,” the newspaper quoted MS Khan, the lawyer representing the four men, as saying.
Who are the accused?
Irshad, a resident of Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, is an autorickshaw driver. Raees, also a resident of Amroha, worked at a welding shop. At the time of their arrests, Zaid was living at Jafrabad in east Delhi and Azam ran a medical store at Seelampur in east Delhi. The four were arrested on December 2018 with 10 others.
The agency in a press release issued on December 26 last year, had accused Irshad of “helping Mohammad Suhail (prime accused) in arranging a hideout for keeping the material for making IEDs and bombs.” It had also accused Raees Ahmad and his brother Saeed as being responsible for procuring a huge amount of explosive substance for making improvised explosive devices and pipe bombs. It accused them of being involved in “fabricating a rocket launcher to carry out terrorist attacks”.
Meanwhile, a charge sheet was filed against 10 others on July 21, Sunday in a special court in Delhi’s Patiala House. The accused against whom the chargesheet was filed are Mufti Mohd Suhail, 30, Anas Younus, 21, Zubair Malik, 22, Rashid Zafar Raq, 24, Md. Saqib, 26, Md. Absar Said, 24, Md. Gufran, 25, Md. Faiz, 25, and Naim Choudhary, 22.
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Shaik Zakeer Hussain is the Founder and Editor of The Cognate.
