While acquitting Irshad Ali and Maurif Qamar, arrested on terror charges in 2006, a Delhi Sessions Court has pointed to discrepancies in the probe carried out by the Delhi Police Special Cell, while stating that the prosecution had been “unable to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt”. The court also said that “no crime team was called to the spot” and that “no efforts” were made by the Special Cell “to lift any fingerprints from the ammunition seized” from the accused. The Indian Express had first reported about the court order, acquitting Ali and Qamar of terror charges after an 11-year trial, on December 22, 2016. The Special Cell had maintained that the duo were arrested with arms and ammunition on February 9, 2006, from Mukarba Chowk in Delhi, minutes after they got off a bus from Jammu. In a detailed order passed by Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh, the court pointed out at least five crucial aspects of the probe, in view of which it said the “prosecution has been unable to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt”. The court said the Special Cell’s “site plan” of the place from where the duo were apprehended “does not contain full material particulars”. The court also said, “No written order of any senior police official regarding assignment of investigation was produced by the prosecution.” Noting that “private vehicles were used in the raid”, the court said, “Details of these vehicles used by the police have not been mentioned in the DD Entry. No logbook of use of private vehicles has been maintained. None of them could recall the registration numbers of these private vehicles.” The court has said that “no credible effort” was made by police to join public witnesses, despite there being an “IGL station, DTC depot and a police post nearby”. The court added that “neither the driver nor the conductor of JKSRTC bus”, in which the two men were suspected to have been travelling, were made witnesses in this case, nor were the bus tickets recovered from the accused. Qamar’s brother had approached the Delhi High Court, which had ordered a CBI probe. In its closure report filed on November 11, 2008, the CBI concluded that the duo were IB and Special Cell informers and had been falsely implicated. The Special Cell, however, claimed the duo were Al Badr militants. The Special Cell had claimed that RDX, cartridges, detonators and a Chinese pistol were recovered from them.
