Himayatbagh ‘encounter’: Two sentenced to 10-year prison term

The court also said that it is “not obliged” to decide the cause of death of Qureshi but the post-mortem report “establishes” that he died due to bullet injuries on his face.

Over five years after a cop was shot at during an alleged encounter at Himayatbagh in Aurangabad, a sessions court recently convicted two men and sentenced them to 10 years each in prison on the charges of attempt to murder. The two, who were named by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad as alleged members of the banned organisation, SIMI, were acquitted of terror charges. Two others arrested in the case were acquitted of all charges.

The Aurangabad unit of the ATS had claimed that on March 26, 2012, they received information that Mohammed Abrar, named in the Ahmedabad bomb blast, was coming to Himayatbagh along with his associates to meet an aide. The prosecution claimed that the ATS team spotted the men moving in the area and an officer asked Abrar to stop, but one of the men drew a pistol and fired at them. The ATS said that a bullet hit constable SK Aref on the shoulder and in the exchange of fire that followed, accused Shakir Hussein sustained an injury on the leg and another accused, Azhar Qureshi, was shot at and succumbed to injuries later.

Abrar and Hussein claimed in their defence that the ATS officers had already arrested them before the incident was “stage-managed” to conceal the killing of Qureshi. They claimed that Himayatbagh, where the alleged encounter took place, being heavily crowded, it was “highly impossible” that ATS officers would fire at the accused in such an area. They further claimed that Qureshi was shot at from close range and that he had never attempted to fire at the ATS team.

The court observed, “Nothing has been brought on record by the defence side to show that the ATS officers had any axe to grind (against) the accused persons (to frame them) in a false crime. Nothing has been placed on record to show that ATS officers wanted to kill the third accused in a fake encounter.”

The court further said that since no offence was registered in the state against Abrar and the other accused had no criminal antecedents, there was “no reason” for the ATS to unlawfully detain them for a period of one week and then attempt to kill them. The court also said that it is “not obliged” to decide the cause of death of Qureshi but the post-mortem report “establishes” that he died due to bullet injuries on his face.

The court found Abrar and Shakir guilty under sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Arms Act.

Further, special Judge VV Patil observed, “… only because the ATS officers say that the accused no. 1 and 2 are involved in unlawful activities and that they are member of SIMI… in absence of any cogent and convincing evidence, they also can not be held guilty for commission of any of the offence punishable under The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.”

Hafiz Nadeem Siddiqui, president of Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra, which represented the accused, said they will appeal against the conviction.