NEW DELHI: A court on Saturday discharged alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda for want of evidence in the fourth and final case filed against him by Delhi Police’s Special Cell.
Accused of being involved in multiple bomb blasts that took place in the country in the 1990s and helping Pakistani and Bangladeshi militants sneak in, the 74-year-old is facing 40 terror-related cases across the country and will remain behind bars despite the latest acquittal. He was discharged in three other cases last year. Two of them pertained to the October 28, 1997 blast in the capital’s Karol Bagh area and two blasts in Sadar Bazaar on October 1, 1997. The third case was registered under the stringent provisions of the TADA and IPC sections.
The court also discharged his father-in-law Mohd Zakaria and their two alleged close aides – Allauddin and Bashiruddin – in the case.The Special Cell had filed a chargesheet against the accused under various Sections of IPC, including 121 (waging war against the country), 121-A (conspiring to commit certain offences against the state) and provisions of the Explosives Substance Act, Foreigners Act and Arms Act. Arrested from the Indo-Nepal border at Banbasa on August 16, 2013, Tunda was one of the 20 terrorists India had asked Pakistan to hand over after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. An Interpol red corner notice was issued against him in 1996.
According to the Special Cell, Allauddin and Bashiruddin met Tunda in 1994 through Zakaria before joining the banned LeT. The police had claimed that on Tunda’s instruction, the other three accused helped Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals involved in various terror strikes infiltrate into India in 1997.