New Delhi, Oct 19: The Delhi High Court has rejected the plea of two Kashmiri militants for quashing of charges against them in 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. Justice J D Kapoor, who dismissed the revision petition of accused Nazir Ahmad Qasid and his son Farooq Ahmad Qasid, also declined to stay the trial proceedings in the case.
However, the court gave them liberty to approach the trial court with a fresh plea to hear them on the point of charge. Revision petitions of five other accused against framing of charges were still pending in the high court.
The high court had last month ordered setting up of a special court to try the case on a day-to-day basis and also decided to monitor its progress.
The case is hanging fire since January 07 when charges were framed against 11 persons including the prime accused and Pakistani national Ashfaq and his Indian wife Rehmana Yusuf Farooqi. All the accused 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) under IPC.
Bureau Report