SIX ACQUITTED OF CONSPIRACY CHARGE

A local court in Ahmedabad acquitted six persons accused of hatching terror conspiracy to avenge the 2002 communal riots. Firoz Ghaswala, Maohammad Ali Chippa, Vakil Ahmad, Umar Farookh, Anisul Bari and Muhibul Bari were arrested by the state Anti Terrorist Squad in May 2006 on charges of having links with Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami. The ATS was then headed by D.G. Vanzara, who is presently behind bars in connection with the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and killing of his wife Kausarbi in 2005. Principal District Judge G.N. Patel while acquitting them observed that the investigating agency was not able to prove their case that the accused had taken terror related training in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The agency also could not prove any link between the accused and the banned organisations LeT and Huji, as it had contended, he said. Illyas Pathan, one of the lawyers representing the accused, said his clients were falsely implicated in the case by the ATS.