New Delhi, Sept 28: The Delhi High court has ordered setting up of a special court to try on a day-to-day basis the Red Fort shootout case in which a two-member Lashkar-e-Toiba squad had stormed the historic monument and killed two armymen and a civilian three years ago.
While issuing directions to the registrar general in this regard, Justice S K Agarwal said "the matter be kept pending before the High Court so that the progress of the case could be monitored".
The case is hanging fire since January 07 when the trial court framed charges against 11 persons including the prime accused and Pakistani national Arif alias Ashfaq and his alleged Indian wife Rehmana Yusuf Farooqi. All the accused had pleaded "not guilty" to the charges.
The progress of the case could be gauged from the fact that only four out of the total 217 prosecution witnesses have been examined so far.
Ashfaq was charged with waging war against the government of India (Sec 121-A), criminal conspiracy (Sec 120-B) murder (Sec 302), cheating (Sec 420), forgery (Sec 468) and using as genuine a forged document (Sec 471) under IPC. Besides, he was charged under Section 14 of Foreigners Act, Sections 4 and 5 of Explosives Act as also Arms Act.
Rehmana and Babar Mohsin Bhagwala of Delhi were charged with criminal conspiracy (Sec 120-B) and harbouring the main accused (Sec 216) of IPC.
Bureau Report