3 LET men get 10 yrs in jail for conspiracy to eliminate leaders

MUMBAI: The special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court on Tuesday convicted three suspected Lashkare-taiba (LET) operatives and sentenced them to 10 years imprisonment for conspiring to eliminate prominent rightwing political leaders, their sympathisers and media persons from Nanded, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

The three convicts – Mohammed Muzzammil, Mohammed Sadique and Mohammed Akram – have also been convicted for illegal possession of arms.

The special court however, acquitted two other accused, Mohammed Iliyas and Mohammed Irfan, in the case.

The Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) had arrested the five accused in August and September 2012. The group was headed by Akram. The ATS had claimed that the five had links with LET. The case was later transferred to NIA in June 2013. According to NIA, Akram went to Saudi Arabia on the pretext of seeking employment

but met various operatives of LET and Harkat-ul-jihad-e-islami (HUJI).

The agency further claimed that during his stay in Saudi Arabia, Akram along with the other accused, hatched a conspiracy at Riyadh to carry out targeted killings of prominent Hindu leaders, journalists, politicians and police officers in various parts of India.

To execute the conspiracy, Akram was returned to India and travelled to different part of the country such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Nanded. He was joined by the other accused.

NIA claimed that Muzzammil

and Sadique acted at Akram’s behest and had conducted reconnaissance (recce) of various monuments and people who they intended to target. The five accused were allegedly part of the module of the LET operatives busted in Karnataka in 2012, where more than 20 people were arrested by the local police.

In 2017, the accused had pleaded guilty claiming that they had already spent the period of minimum imprisonment as under-trial prisoners. However, the plea was rejected by the court on the grounds that the case was at a crucial stage.