Khushi Gupta
Published on: May 10, 2022 at 14:50 IST
The Kerala High Court upheld the Conviction of 10 Accused, including former self-styled South Indian Commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Thadiyantavida Nazeer, in the Kashmir Terror Recruitment Case on Monday.
A Division Bench of Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice C Jayachandran, however, acquitted three persons.
In 2009, the National Investigation Agency was handed a Case to Investigate Allegations that persons from Kerala are being recruited in terror camps in Jammu and Kashmir.
During the Investigation, the National Investigation Agency found that five youth who came to North Kerala for religious studies were brainwashed and later given arms training and sent to Kashmir. While four were killed in the Kashmir encounter, one person managed to escape. He was arrested in Hyderabad two years later.
The Case recently made headlines after the High Court allowed witness examination of a BSNL official, who had issued a call record document showing communication between the accused and some persons in Kashmir before the encounter.
Counsel for the Acquitted argued that the BSNL official had not attested the document under Section 65B of the Evidence Act related to the Indian Penal Code.
On April 8, the BSNL official was summoned by the Court, and both the Counsels of National Investigation Agency and the accused cross-examined him. After the Cross-examination, the Court accepted the call record certificate of the BSNL official as additional Evidence.
The Bench found that the Conviction of ten of them was right but acquitted three for want of Evidence.
The Case sent shockwaves in Kerala, and many religious study Centres and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) were under the scanner after this. According to the National Investigation Agency Charge-sheet, Nazeer was the kingpin behind the incident. He was in constant touch with his contacts in Kashmir and arranged training in the Valley.
In January, the High Court had acquitted him and his accomplice S Shafaz in Kozhikode in connection with the Twin Blast Case.