UP blasts: Court rejects police`s plea to summon J&K Police SI

Special court hearing 2007 Faizabad and Lucknow blasts cases, rejected plea of UP Police to summon Sub Inspector of Kashmir police to prove that accused had a link with a slain HuJI operative.

Faizabad: A special court, hearing the 2007 Faizabad and Lucknow blasts cases, has rejected a plea of UP Police seeking to summon a Sub Inspector of Kashmir police to prove that the accused in the case had a link with a slain HuJI operative. Additional District Judge Mohammad Hussain turned down the plea of Investigating Officer (IO) Rakesh Kumar Srivastava yesterday.

The IO had sought summoning of Kuldip, an SI in Kashmir Police, who was in-charge of `malkana` where mobile phone and some other belongings of the slain HuJI operative Bashir aka Hijazi were kept. Bashir was killed in 2008 in Kashmir Valley. The probe agency wanted to establish through call details and some other means that the three accused in the case were connected with HuJI. According to defence lawyer Jamal Ahmad, "The IO has no right to move any application regarding witnesses or adding more witnesses and recording of more statements after the submission of final charge sheet in the court." Meanwhile, the three accused-- Tariq Qasmi, Sajjadur-Rehman and Mohammad Akhtar were produced before the court today amid tight security. They were brought from Lucknow jail. The fourth accused, Khalid Mujahid, was killed mysteriously earlier this year while he was being escorted to a jail after a hearing. According to media reports, top IM operative Yasin Bhatkal has reportedly claimed that it was his group which had carried out the attacks in the two court premises and various other places. However, the state police is claiming that it was HuJI which was behind the attacks. In 2007, blasts ripped through crowded Faizabad and Lucknow court premises. PTI