The Special POTA judge,Jyotsana Yagnik,has reserved her judgment till December 2 in the controversial ISI conspiracy case. The trial in the case completed on Wednesday after the defence and prosecution lawyers concluded their arguments. The Ahmedabad city Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) had lodged a complaint in this regard initially against over 50 people for hatching a conspiracy to avenge the 2002 riots. The accused were slapped with charges under the provisions of the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). However,POTA charges were lifted from 10 accused after the Gujarat High Court upheld the POTA Review Committees recommendations and ordered to separate their trial from the one being conducted under POTA. Two other accused - Mohammed Abdul Rauf and Asghar Ali were discharged by the court from the charges in the case on the ground of double jeopardy since they had already been convicted in the Haren Pandya murder case. Ultimately,the trial was conducted against 44 accused. Many high-profile criminals like Dawood Ibrahim,Rasool Party and Chhota Shakeel are absconders in the case. The total number of absconders in the case is 38. A total of 202 witnesses have been examined and cross-examined in the case by the prosecution and defence. Over 2,000 documentary evidences were also put on record.
