Gujarat court acquits 5 AP men in conspiracy case

The Ahmedabad district sessions court's verdict to acquit all the accused in the Ahmadabad conspiracy case has brought cheers to the families of five people from Andhra Pradesh who were imprisoned in Sabarmati Jail for seven years.

The five people, Moulana Abdul Raheem, Iftikharul Hasan Hashmi, Mohammed Abdul Bari, Shafiuddin and Mufti Syed Akbar, were released from the jail following the judgment.

The court has acquitted all the nine accused in the case, including four from Gujarat.

The Ahmedabad police had charged the five men with conspiring to wage war against the nation. Of the total 140 people who were listed as accused, 60 had been arrested from different places in the country.

The prosecution had claimed that a group of men had gathered in a garden in Ahmedabad to watch the CDs of demolition of Babri Masjid and the Gujarat riots and were conspiring to take revenge for the two incidents.

The five men were charged in the Haren Pandya murder case but their names were later removed by the Pota Review Committee.

They have also been acquitted in the larger conspiracy case by the sessions judge A H Shah. Twelve people from Andhra Pradesh have been acquitted in this case.

Defence lawyer Ilyas Khan D Pathan said the police could not produce any evidence against the accused nor any weapon recovered from them.