A special court on Friday acquitted Arshi Qureshi booked on charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly radicalising youngsters to join the Islamic State (IS), the Indian Express reported.
Qureshi, who has been in jail since 2016, had worked as the guest relations manager at the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) founded by Dr Zakir Naik. Mumbai police booked him on the basis of allegations by one Abdul that he had indoctrinated his son Ashfak Majeed.
On Friday, Special Judge A M Patil acquitted Qureshi, saying that no evidence was found to prove the allegations against him.
In August 2016, Abdul approached the Mumbai police with a complaint against Qureshi and two others, alleging that they entered into a criminal conspiracy by indoctrinating and recruiting Ashfak, his wife and daughter to join the Islamic State (IS).
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe into the case in 2016 and filed a charge sheet against Qureshi.
Meanwhile, two others arrested along with him were not charge-sheeted as the NIA had stated that it did not have enough evidence against them. The NIA, in its charge sheet, had claimed that Ashfak came in contact with Qureshi while he was in Mumbai.
During the trial, 57 witnesses, including the relatives of those claimed to have been influenced by Qureshi, were examined. Out of which eight witnesses had turned hostile. The defence counsel had submitted that there was no evidence presented by the prosecution to portray that Qureshi had indoctrinated the youth or that they had joined the IS.
Back in 2016, when Qureshi was arrested along with his colleague Rizwan Khan, several Muslim converts has spoken out in their support, saying the charges of forced conversions against them were ‘false’, The Cognate had reported.
Meanwhile, Qureshi will be released from jail after completion of formalities.
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Rabia Shireen is a Staff Reporter at The Cognate.
