New Delhi: Eighteen years after a TADA case was slapped against a suspected Kashmiri militant, CBI has sought closure of the case telling a Delhi court that it has failed to get a confessional statement on the charges levelled against him of receiving money from Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin.
Mohd Ahsan Dar, along with Salahuddin, was wanted in the case registered under the TADA Act for allegedly abetting terror activities in the country.
He was accused by the CBI of receiving USD 10,000 and a letter from Salahuddin in the FIR registered on April 20, 1991.
Dar, 53, who hailed from Baramullah remained absconding all these years, was arrested by Jammu and Kashmir police on January 14, 2009, and later quizzed by the investigating agency after being taken into three-day custody in June.
"He (Dar) did not admit the charges. He stated that he was not having good relations with Salahuddin and that he was removed from the post of divisional commander by him and as such sending of USD 10,000 and a letter by him were not true," CBI told the court.
CBI had got Dar declared proclaimed offender from a court that tried Dar`s co-accused on December 19, 1993. The agency now made a volte-face saying he was not chargesheeted as no incriminating materials could be found.
The CBI`s closure report filed in a special TADA court has been put for consideration for October 14. The case in which Dar was wanted dates back to March 1991, when two accused Ashfaq Hussain Lone and Shahbuddin Ghouri were arrested from the capital as they were going to hold a meeting at the office of Jamaat-e-Islami to step up terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
The CBI had filed a chargesheet against the two under the Indian Penal Code and the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.
The designated TADA court had in July 1998 awarded Lone, HM`s deputy chief of intelligence, and Ghouri, an M Phil student from Jawaharlal Nehru University here, seven years prison term.
In its closure report, the CBI said that the only evidence against Dar, who could not be arrested in the case, was in the form of confessional statements of Lone and Ghouri under Section 15 of the TADA which can only be used in a joint trial with the accused.
"Since the trial against the two accused has been concluded, the statements cannot now be used in a fresh trial against Dar," it said.
CBI claimed that Dar, however, had admitted to having met Ghouri on two-three occasions as he was introduced to him by Firdous, the publicity press secretary of HM.
"During the course of investigation, no further evidence either oral or documentary has been recovered against Dar. There is no sufficient evidence or reasonable ground to justify the custody or prosecution of Dar," the agency said, adding that its closure report should be accepted in the interest of justice.
Bureau Report
