26/11 plotter Abu Jundal gets lifer along with six others in Aurangabad arms case
In the Aurangabad arms haul case, seven out of 12 convicts, including Abu Jundal, were sentenced to life imprisonment on Tuesday. Two convicts were sentenced to 14 years of jail, the rest three sentenced to 8 years of jail. Ten years after the Anti-Terrorism Squad recovered a huge haul of arms near Aurangabad, a special court last week held Abu Jundal, the key plotter of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, and 11 others guilty, but dropped the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act charges against them. Out of total 22 accused in the case, the court acquitted eight others, while trial of two accused has been separated, as one of them was declared hostile after he turned approver, while another accused is absconding. One of the 12 persons found guilty on Tuesday was Faizal Ataur Rehman Sheikh who is on death row in the July 11, 2006, Mumbai train bombings case. Six persons are still wanted in the case. Special MCOCA Judge Shrikant Anekar delivered the ruling, days after conclusion of final arguments in the case, following a ten-year-long wait. The court convicted Jundal under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Explosives Act, Explosive Substance Act and Indian Penal Code, while convicting the others under varied charges. Charges against them under the MCOCA were, however, dropped. The court accepted the prosecution's contention that the cache of arms and ammunitions that the ATS had intercepted from two cars had originally been procured from Pakistan. While convicting Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operative, Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, and 11 others, the court observed that ATS could not substantiate the charges of the MCOCA against them, even as it accepted direct and substantial evidence presented by the agency in the case. On May 8, 2006, a Maharashtra ATS team chased a Tata Sumo and an Indica car on Chandwad-Manmad Highway near Aurangabad and arrested three terror suspects and seized 30kg of RDX, 10 AK-47 assault rifles and 3,200 bullets from them. Jundal, allegedly driving the Indica, managed to give the police the slip.
