Five held for LeT link to plead guilty

Mumbai: Five accused from Nanded arrested by the ATS on Monday have filed an application before the special NIA court, seeking to plead guilty in the case. They were arrested for allegedly having links with Pakistan-based banned terrorist outfit, Lashkar-e-Tayba, and for possessing illegal firearms to eliminate certain Hindu leaders and journalists to create unrest in the country.

The five persons who submitted an application before special judge V.P. Avhad are: Mohammed Muzammil, Mohammed Sadiq, Mohammed Iliyas, Mohammed Irfan and Mohammed Akram.

One of the former defense lawyers, advocate Sharif Shaikh said, “Yes, the accused in the case wanted to plead guilty, saying that they have already spent more than the minimum possible sentence in case of conviction. Though we were against it, the accused wanted to plead guilty, and hence, we have separated ourselves from this case.”

Advocate Khan Abdul Wahab, who was also appearing as a defense lawyer on behalf of Jamiat-e-Ulema Maharashtra, said, “The accused were going against our instructions. Following this, we withdrew from the case with the court’s permission.”

Sources said that the accused were of the view that the trial was going on very slowly and that they had already spent a lot of time behind bars and that pleading guilty would end the case.

The court has fixed the matter for further hearing on November 13.

The ATS had arrested the five accused in 2012 and later, the NIA took over the investigation.

The court has framed charges against the accused under various sections of UAPA, the Arms Act and IPC, including criminal conspiracy.

According to the probe agency, the accused, at the behest of their leaders and handlers based in Saudi Arabia, were planning to eliminate some of the local Hindu leaders in Nanded and Hyderabad to create communal tensions.