Liaquat will be freed of NIA probe absolve him of terror plot, says home ministry

The central government on Tuesday gave fresh hope to wrongfully arrested Liaquat Ali Shah, he was arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly plotting terror attack in the national capital on the eve of Holi festival which is untrue and shows the police is biased against Muslims.

Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh, who has so far backed the Delhi Police's theory of Shah being a dangerous Hizbul terrorist, for the first time indicated that he might be given benefit of doubt.

"During the investigation if it is proved that he was going to surrender, our effort will be to help him and his family," Singh said.

According to Delhi Police, Liaqat was planning terror attack in crowded places of the city on the eve of Holi and was arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur district on March 20 while he was heading for the national capital from Karachi. On his tip-off an AK-56 rifle, two loaded magazines, three hand grenades and explosive substance were recovered from a guesthouse in Delhi's Jama Masjid area.

The Jammu and Kashmir Police claimed that Shah was going to surrender before them when he was arrested.

NIA to probe alleged Hizbul operative Liaquat Shah arrest

Giving in to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's demand, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe the Delhi Police 's claim that the recently arrested Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Liaqat Ali Shah was part of a 26/11-type terror plot in the national capital.

The Delhi Police and the Jammu and Kashmir Police have been at the loggerheads over the issue. While the Delhi Police had claimed that Shah was linked to the alleged suicide attack plot in the city, the Jammu and Kashmir Police claimed that the alleged terrorist was on his way to the state to surrender.

Backing the state police, Abdullah had demanded a time-bound NIA probe into the matter.

Earlier in the day, Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh summoned Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar and special commissioner of its special cell S.N. Srivastava over the issue.

Headlines Today had earlier reported that the Delhi Police's claim on Shah's arrest might be false. While the Delhi Police had on Friday claimed that Shah was nabbed from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh on March 20 following a tip-off from the Multi-Agency Centre (MAC), sources in intelligence agencies and Union Home Ministry had revealed that no such report was sent to the local police recently.

Source:
 http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/liaquat-ali-shah-arrest-case-home-ministry-nia-delhi-police-jammu-kashmir-police/1/259323.html

Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat video clip junks police's Liyaqat Shah claim

The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat held a press conference here on Tuesday to present documented evidence against Delhi Police Special Cell's claims that former militant Liyaqat Shah was arrested from Gorakhpur.
The organisation, which serves as an umbrella body of Muslim groups, showed a 57-second-long clipping featuring two personnel of the Sashastra Seema Bal talk about Shah and how he entered India with his family.
"Some days ago, some people had come through the border. Routine checks keep going on. When we questioned them and saw their documents, we had some doubt because the documents they had did not look valid. So, we thought we should question them properly," one of the SSB personnel was heard saying in the video clip.
"Later, we got to know from the news channels and media that the man, Liyaqat Ali Shah, whom we had detained and handed over to security forces has links with Hizbul Mujahideen."
Asserting that the video "discredited" all claims by Special Cell that Shah was arrested from a railway station in Gorakhpur, the panelists said that the cell had "put in danger a very important government scheme to end militancy in Kashmir".
Responding to the allegations, a police official in Special Cell said, "Why should we be against the rehabilitation policy for militants? We have always said that Shah came through the Nepal route but he was arrested by our policemen from Gorakhpur railway station."
"As for claims by 'SSB officials', I cannot comment on something that I have not seen. The credentials of this video are to be verified," the officer said.
Meanwhile, the special NIA court on Tuesday granted permission to the National Investigation Agency to interrogate Shah in judicial custody.

Source:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/muslim-majlisemushawarat-video-clip-junks-polices-liyaqat-shah-claim/1096841/

Babri case: CBI questioned over delay in filing appeal against Advani

The Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned CBI for the delay in filing appeal against the Allahabad High Court order that conspiracy charge will not apply to BJP leader L.K. Advani and others in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

A bench headed by Justice H.L. Dattu directed that an affidavit be filed within two weeks by a senior law officer of the Central government after noting that the delay of 167 days was caused because of a law officer.

In compliance with the apex court’s earlier order, CBI on Tuesday placed before the bench the case details in which it submitted that the delay was caused as the drafting of the appeal against the Allahabad High Court verdict was pending before Additional Solicitor General and Solicitor General for their approval and opinion.

“The delay was on the part of Solicitor General. So affidavit from the concerned person would facilitate us to understand the delay,” the bench said.

“In your interest it is better if an affidavit is filed,” the court said, granting two weeks time to CBI to get the affidavit filed by the senior law officer.

The bench, however, in its order did not mention the officer who would be filing the affidavit and said it should be filed by a senior law officer.

The apex court was hearing CBI’s appeal challenging the verdicts of a special CBI court and the Allahabad High Court dropping conspiracy charge against Advani, Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and Murli Manohar Joshi.

The others against whom the charge was dropped included Satish Pradhan, C.R. Bansal, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Sadhvi Ritambhara, V.H. Dalmia, Mahant Avaidhynath, R.V. Vedanti, Param Hans Ram Chandra Das, Jagdish Muni Maharaj, B.L. Sharma, Nritya Gopal Das, Dharam Das, Satish Nagar and Moreshwar Save.

CBI has challenged in the Supreme Court the May 21, 2010 order of the high court, which had upheld a special court’s decision to drop the charge against the leaders.

The High Court had at that time, however, allowed CBI to proceed with other charges against Mr. Advani and others in a Rae Bareily court, under which the case falls.

The May 2010 order of the High Court had said there was no merit in CBI’s revision petition against the May 4, 2001 order of the special court which had directed dropping of criminal conspiracy charge against them.

There are two sets of cases — one against Mr. Advani and others who were on the dais at Ram Katha Kunj in Ayodhya in December 1992 when the Babri Masjid was demolished, while the other case was against lakhs of unknown ‘karsevaks’ who were in and around the disputed structure.

CBI had chargesheeted Mr. Advani and 20 others under sections 153A (promoting enmity between classes), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505 (false statements, rumours etc circulated with the intent to cause mutiny or disturb public peace)of IPC.

It had subsequently invoked charges under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC which was quashed by the special court whose decision was upheld by the high court. Bal Thackeray’s name was removed from the list of accused persons after his death.

While upholding the special court’s order, the high court had said CBI at no point of time, either during the trial at Rae Bareily or in its revision petition, ever stated that there was offence of criminal conspiracy against the leaders.

Mumbai police exposed Leaked circular on jihad agitates Muslim groups

Even as the Mumbai police are probing the leak of an internal circular regarding the women's wing of an Islamic organisation allegedly brainwashing and training girls for Jihad, investigators said on Tuesday that nothing incriminating has come to their notice so far.

The recently issued internal circular by Mumbai police's Special Branch sparked controversy as it said the Girls Islamic Organisation (GIO) of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, one of the country's largest Islamic organisations that runs 40 high schools and three junior colleges in Maharashtra, has been operating with the objective of "brainwashing college and school girls and training them for jihad."
The circular, meant to be for personnel within the police department, got leaked and invited the wrath of Jamaat, with its Maharashtra spokesman Mohammad Aslam Ghazi threatening to sue the department if it does not apologise.
Amid threats of legal action and mounting anger of the outfit, a Special Branch officer said, "It is true that we have received information about anti-national activities by the GIO, but as of now our surveillance has not discovered anything like this in Maharashtra. We did not find any suspicious activity of the GIO in the state".
The circular, issued last month, says, "The group, GIO, is related to Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and it was established in Kerala. The purported aim of this organisation is to make more and more Muslim women aware of their religion and the holy Quran. But the real objective of this organisation is to brainwash school and college girls and train them for jihad".
A delegation of Jamaat, headed by the outfit's Maharashtra presidentJamaat-e-Islami Hind  met special branch chief and additional police commissioner Naval Bajaj on Monday, seeking his response on the matter.
A letter from the organisation's office seeking police's response and apology in writing will be sent soon. If the outfit is not satisfied with the reply, then a legal notice will be served to them, the Jamaat claimed.
Meanwhile, Mumbai police have also started an investigation to ascertain as to how the internal circular got leaked to the media.

Source:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Maharashtra/Leaked-circular-on-jihad-agitates-Muslim-groups/Article1-1036212.aspx