After 19 years in jail, HC grants bail to 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case convict

In July 2016, a special court had convicted 12 men in the Aurangabad arms seizure case, sentencing seven, including 26/11 attacks plotter Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, to life imprisonment till death.

The court had observed that the prosecution established that the arms were procured from Pakistan with the help of Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives and that the larger conspiracy was to eliminate then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadia.

On May 8, 2006, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad pursued vehicles on the Chandwad Manmad highway near Aurangabad and arrested three terror suspects. Jundal allegedly escaped from the car he was driving and was later arrested in 2012 after being deported from Saudi Arabia.

The ATS subsequently seized six AK 47 rifles, 3,200 rounds of ammunition, 43 kg of RDX and 50 hand grenades from locations in Khultabad, Yeola and Malegaon, which investigators said were part of a larger terror conspiracy.

Appearing for Shaikh, his lawyers argued that he had spent over 19 years in custody and continued incarceration was unwarranted, particularly after his acquittal in the Mumbai train blasts case.