Five men held for plotting to kill Tehelka scribes freed

“All the accused persons are given benefit of doubt and are acquitted for the offences charged. Superintendent Jail be directed to release the accused from jail,if not required in any other case,” the court added.

They five who were acquitted are Delhi residents Anil Kumar Sehrawat,Rakesh Solanki,Raj Kumar and Ombir and Ghazhiabad resident Dinesh Kumar Tyagi.

The Delhi Police had arrested the five,along with alleged gangleader Bhupinder Tyagi,a native of Bihar on May 4,2001 on charges of working at the behest of ISI to kill Tejpal and Bahal so that the needle of suspicion behind their killings point to the erstwhile government,smarting under an expose of allegedly massive corruption in defence deals during the tenure of the then Defence Minister Gerorge Fernandes.

Slapping charges of sedition,criminal conspiracy and forgery,the police had alleged that they had plotted to “eliminate” Tejpal and Bahl “at the behest of the ISI to create political instability in the country and to bring hatred,contempt and disaffection among Indians towards the Government of India.”

“Killing of these two persons would be attributed to those people who have been exposed by the Tehelka and thereby causing discredit to the Indian Government and political instability in the country,” the police had told the court. On a tip-off by intelligence agencies,sleuths of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell had intercepted a Tata Safari car on May 4,2001,allegedly laden with huge cache of arms and ammunition and counterfeit Indian currency and had arrested the six persons.

The arms and ammunition allegedly recovered from them included an AK 47 assault rifle,loaded pistols,huge cache of ammunitions,besides fake Indian currency worth Rs 25,000 and a paper bearing title “Operation Westened Ka Bhandafod” with rough sketches and maps of Delhi,highlighting the office of the two scribes.

While Tyagi had died in July 2008,trying to escape from jail and the trial against him was abated,the other accused had defended themselves claiming they were falsely implicated in the case.

The police had produced 21 witnesses including Tejpal and Behl but they failed to impress the court and establish beyond doubts the guilt of the five surviving accused.

The court said the prosecution case had several holes “which cannot be plugged and no new story can be reconstructed by this court.”

“No finger prints were lifted from the vehicle in which accused were allegedly found travelling,from the bags in which arms and ammunition were allegedly kept and the arms and ammunition themselves. Had such finger prints been lifted from such arms and ammunition,it would have furnished strong corroborative evidence,” the court said

“It has also not been established,beyond reasonable doubt,that there existed the de-facto relation of control or dominion of the accused over fire arms or ammunition recovered,” it added.