MUMBAI: A special court on Tuesday discharged the last known accused in the 2002
Ghatkopar BEST bus blast case after the prosecution submitted that investigations did not reveal his role in the incident. Irfan Qureshi was picked up by the Gujarat ATS from Aurangabad on May 5 and handed over to the Mumbai crime branch.
In August 2013, the court, under POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act; stands repealed), had discharged another accused, Taj-ul-Islam Siddiqui, a software engineer, after the prosecution's report that it didn't have sufficient evidence against him. All arrested accused in the case, who are mostly from Marathwada, have been discharged for lack of evidence.
Special judge SM Bhosle observed, "On consideration of the report with the submission and the material, as it appears that there is no sufficient evidence to prosecute further, the accused, Irfan Qureshi, is hereby directed to be discharged (on the execution of a Rs 15,000 bond with one surety of a like amount)."
Earlier, Qureshi's advocates Mubin Solkar and Tahera Qureshi moved a plea seeking bail. But the police moved a report under section 169 (release of accused when evidence deficient) of the Criminal Procedure Code and cited lack of evidence against him.
The 2002 blast killed two and injured 50. Qureshi was alleged to be a conspirator and the police initially claimed that he had fled. The prosecution said Qureshi was the founder-director of Pragma Software Technology, which created CDs and floppy disks with material on terror outfits. But the police could not produce evidence to prove their point.
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