BENGALURU: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Bengaluru acquitted Tripura resident Mohammed Habeeb (41), who was arrested in the December 2005 terror attack at the IISc in Bengaluru. Prof Munish Chandra Puri of IIT-Delhi had died, and four other scientists had suffered injuries after gunmen had opened fire at the ongoing meeting of international scientists on the IISc campus on December 28, 2005.
Habeeb, a garage mechanic, was arrested in 2017 by NIA on the basis of a confessional statement by the accused, Sabahuddin, who was arrested by Lucknow police in 2008 in the IISc case. The latter had reportedly claimed that Habeeb helped him cross the border to Bangladesh after the IISc attack.
Special Judge Kasanappa Naik while discharging Habeeb said that the prosecution has not made out a prime facie case against Habeeb to frame charges under various sections, including 121 (waging war against the government of India), 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Explosive Substance Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act UA(P)A. The judge said that he “failed to understand why he was arraigned as an accused in the case”.
The NIA court disagreed with the prosecution and accepted Habeeb’s plea that the “police have not stated anything in the chargesheet about the accused, and also not collected any evidence which show that the accused has any distinct knowledge of the incident or crime involved in this case at any point of time”, Habeeb’s lawyer Mohammed Tahir had argued before the court. “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.