IISc Shooting Case: 'No Grounds,' Court Releases Man Who Spent 5 Years in Prison
New Delhi: A special NIA court in Bengaluru has discharged Mohammed Habeeb who was arrested in 2017 for his alleged role in the Indian Institute of Science shooting case of 2005, noting that the court was unable to understand why the accused was arraigned in the first place.
Special judge Dr Kasanappa Naik discharged Habeeb noting that the prosecution had not made out a prima facie case against him, reported LiveLaw.
In the attack on December 28, 2005, Professor Munish Chandra Puri of IIT Delhi was shot dead and four people were injured in the IISc's Bengaluru campus.
Habeeb was held in Tripura's Agartala in 2016 based on a statement was given by the first accused in the case, one Sabahuddin Ahamed, in 2008. He has been in prison since.
Karnataka police had named him as a conspirator of the terror attack which had been orchestrated by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to NDTV.
Habeen had been charged under seven sections of the Indian Penal Code, two sections of the Indian Arms Act, four sections of the Explosive Substance Act and six sections of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
His counsel, Mohammed Tahir, said that police have not stated anything on the chargesheet which shows that the accused had any knowledge on the crime at all.
Tahir also mentioned that a vast number of people named by Sabahuddin Ahamed, the first accused in the case, have not been added to the case at all.
"The accused is languishing in jail without committing any crime nor having any knowledge of the crime and his involvement," Tahir argued.
Habeeb is a garage mechanic by profession, NDTV has reported.
The special public prosecutor had claimed that Sabahuddin's statement had it that Habeeb had taken him illegally to Bangladesh and that Habeen, like Sabahuddin, "had a jihadi mindset", according to LiveLaw's report.
The special court, however, disagreed with the prosecution. "
"On the basis of the materials available on hand, I am of the considered opinion that there is no sufficient grounds to proceed against accused," the judge said, as quoted by NDTV.
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