By MMN,
AHMEDABAD: A metropolitan court has discharged three Muslim youths — Afroz Pathan, Bilal Ahmed and Mustufa Saiyed — in connection with the February 2006 blast that took place at the Kalupur Railway Station.
A metropolitan court on Monday accepted the discharge recommendations for the three accused persons . Their acquittal is a major setback for the ATS Gujarat.
These three youths were falsely implicated by the ATS in the case at a later stage, and brought them from the Maharashtra jail. The matter of fact was that when the blast took place, they were already behind bars and had nothing to do with the terror strike. Failing to find any evidence to show their involvement in the blast case, the probe agency requested the court to discharge all three persons and filed a report according to the provisions of section 169 of CrPC. The court has discharged all three from this case.
Earlier, the court acquitted two persons — Mohammed Ilyas Memon and a constable, Kamlesh Bhagora —in this case for want of evidence against them.
On February 19, 2006, a blast took place at the Ahmedabad railway station, in which at least 10 persons were injured and public property worth Rs 60,000 was destroyed. The bomb had been originally placed on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Karnavati Express, probe revealed.
The only evidence against Mohammad Iliyas was that he had talked to Aslam Kashmiri, who is wanted in a case relating to LeT sleeper cells in Gujarat. But police could neither recover a cell phone from Iliyas’ possession nor obtain Call Data Records regarding his conversation with Kashmiri.