LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court acquitted the lone convict in the murder of National Investigation Agency (NIA) officer Tanzeel Ahmed and his wife Farzana in Uttar Pradesh's Sahaspur, 10 years ago.
The convict, identified as Raiyyan, was awarded death sentence by the Bijnor court which was set aside by the Allahabad High Court exonerating him.
On May 21, 2022, the Bijnor Additional District Judge (ADJ) court had given death sentence to two accused, Munir and Raiyyan, in the murder case. While Munir died in hospital due to prolonged illness during his jail term, Raiyyan had been in jail since after his arrest in 2016.
The single bench of Allahabad High Court Justice Siddharth, in his order, dated March 31, stated: “The court is of the view that the prosecution case is full of doubts and unexplained questionable conduct of the prosecution witnesses."
Tanzeel Ahmed (49) and wife Farzana were returning home along with their two children from a family wedding on April 3, 2016, when the assailants attacked them. Multiple bullets were fired at them.
Ahmed, who was a Deputy Superintendent of Police, had handled several cases related to the Indian Mujahideen (IM), including the arrest and probe against its India chief Yasin Bhatkal. Police had said his body sustained 22 bullet injuries.
Justice Siddharth, while observing that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, said in his order, “It is a case of murder of an officer of National Investigation Agency (NIA) and his wife. The officer was investigating a number of high-profile cases relating to national security, including cases of terrorism. The police party camped at the place of incident for months together to work out the case. It detained a number of persons of places in and around the place of incident for a number of days, as admitted by the prosecution witnesses (specifically number 2,3 and 12), but could not find any reliable clue.”
The bench further noted that while Munir was a local criminal, Raiyyan was shown as his gang member. It added, “Police got them named first in the statements of witnesses number 3 and 12, recorded under duress, to work out the case… thereafter, before the trial court, Raiyyan and Munir, were named by witnesses… for the first time and they were convicted and sentenced by trial court.”
The order said: “Trial court has committed a grave error in awarding capital punishment to the appellant (Raiyyan) which can be understood by the fact that the trial court is at the lowest rung in the hierarchy of fear prevailing in our system. Therefore, this court is of the view that the judgment and order passed by the trial court deserves to be set aside and is set aside as such,” the bench stated in the judgment.
Absolving the convict (appellant) of all the charges, the order added: “Accordingly, the appellant is acquitted of all charges levelled against him. The appellant has been in jail since April 7, 2016. He is directed to be released from jail forthwith, if not arrested in any other case. Let the copy of this judgment be sent to the trial court for compliance within a week.”
The bench said that the matter was heard at length by a coordinate Division Bench (Hon’ble Justice Rajeev Gupta & Hon’ble Justice Harvir Singh) of this court but on account of difference in opinion between the Hon’ble Judges and dissenting judgments passed by them, the matter has been nominated to this Bench of third Judge by Hon’ble The Chief Justice.
According to the prosecution, on the intervening night of April 2 and 3, 2016, Tanzeel along with wife, daughter Zimnish and son Shahbaz, were returning in his car after attending his niece’s wedding.
His brother, Raghib, was following behind in another car along with his wife, daughter and son, it was claimed in the FIR.
As they reached the Talkatora culvert, two persons riding a motorcycle waylaid them and fired indiscriminately, leaving Tanzeel and Farzana critically injured. The two children in the car escaped unhurt. While Tanzeel was declared dead at a hospital, Farzana died during treatment at AIIMS, Delhi, on April 13, 2016.
After investigation, police filed a chargesheet against four men — Raiyyan, Jaini, Tanjim and Rizwan — on charges of murder and conspiracy. Another chargesheet was filed against Munir in August that year.
The trial court framed charges in October 2019 against Raiyyan, Rizwan, Tanjim, Jaini and Munir on charges of murder and conspiracy among others. The trial court convicted Raiyyan and Munir and awarded them death sentence, their co-accused Tanzim, Rizwan and Jaini were acquitted for lack of evidence.