Bangalore, Feb 21: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) in its Bangalore special court has filed a chargesheet against 12 youth, who were among 15 Muslim men arrested in September 2012 in a controversial operation.
The 15 men were picked up from Bangalore, Hubli, Hyderabad and Nanded in Maharashtra. Though the police had initially claimed that the arrested youth had allegedly planned to kill select a few pro-Hindutva journalists, later other charges were leveled against them.
Those charged are Shoaib Ahmed Mirza, Abdul Hakeem Jamadar, Riyaz Ahmed Byahatti, Mohammad Akram, Ubedullah Bahadur, Wahid Hussain Kanakyanavar, Zafar Iqbal Sholapur, Mohammad Sadiq Lashkar, Mehboob Bagalkote, Zakir alias Ustad, Obaid-UrRehman and Nayeem Siddique. Of the 15, Zakir is absconding according to police.
Ajaz Ahmed Mirza, 25, a junior research scientist in DRDO, and Muthi-ur-Rahman Siddiqui, 26, working with an English daily in Bangalore, are two of the 15 arrested who have not been charged.
Bangalore police said a supplementary chargesheet will be filed by the NIA in another fortnight against the rest of the accused.
A Delhi report quoted an official privy to the probe as saying, "The investigating agency is hoping to get more information from Zakir when he gets arrested. As of now, it does not have much evidence against the DRDO scientist and the journalist."
The agency had earlier taken over the investigation of the case from Bangalore City police in December 2012 and continued investigations. A total of 15 persons have been arrested so far while 10 other accused are absconding. City police was also associated during the course of the investigation by the NIA.
The 12 men have been charged under Sections 120 B read with 153 A (criminal conspiracy), 399 (preparing to commit dacoity), 18 read with 10, 13, 17 and 38 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967, and Section 3 read with 25 of the Arms Act 1959.
Comments
Add new comment