CHENNAI: A special NIA court in Chennai on Wednesday declared official Amir Zubair Siddiqui as a proclaimed offender after he failed to honour the court’s summons to appear on October 15.
Siddiqui is an accused in a case pertaining to conspiracy to bomb the American consulate in Chennai and the Israeli consulate in Bengaluru in 2014. He was working as a visa counsellor at the Pakistan High Commission in Colombo, Lanka and had allegedly conspired to strike terror among Indian public through one Mohammed Sakir Hussaein, the prime accused in the case.
According to the NIA’s case, Siddiqui allegedly arranged high value counterfeit Indian currency and brought them to India via agents for financing these subversive activities. He had hatched the conspiracy in SL, Maldives, Bangkok and Malaysia, NIA said.
The case was initially registered by TN Q Branch in April 2014 after being taken up by NIA’s Hyderabad branch. While Muhammed Sakir Hussaein was convicted in 2014, NIA filed a supplementary chargesheet against Siddiqui in 2018. NIA said they had information that Siddiqui had returned to Pakistan, but his present address and contact details were not known.
The NIA court had issued a proclamation on July 29 asking Siddiqui to appear on October 15. A copy was also affixed in the SL Embassy in India and the acknowledgment of authorities taken. As he did not appear as directed, the court declared him as a proclaimed offender under section 82 of the CrPC.
