Court to hear case against Bhatkal, others on Mar 18

Bhatkal and Akhtar at present are custody of Maharashtra ATS, were not produced before District Judge

A Delhi court today fixed March 18 for hearing the case against Indian Mujahideen (IM) co-founder Yasin Bhatkal, his close aide Asadullah Akhtar and two others who were chargesheeted by NIA in connection with their alleged conspiracy to carry out terror acts in India.

According to court sources, Bhatkal and Akhtar, who are at present in the custody of Maharashtra ATS, were not produced before District Judge I S Mehta who fixed the matter for March 18 for further proceedings.

During the in-chamber hearing, the counsel appearing for the accused said that scrutiny of documents filed along with the 277-page supplementary charge sheet of National Investigation Agency (NIA) is going on, the sources said.

The court had on February 24 taken cognisance of NIA's charge sheet in which Bhatkal, Akhtar, Manzer Imam and Ujjair Ahmed were named as accused for allegedly waging war against the country, conspiracy for terrorist acts, membership of a terror organisation and radicalisation and recruitment of youths for IM.

They have been chargesheeted under various sections of IPC, including 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging war against the country), 121-A (conspiracy to wage war) and under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Bhatkal and Akhtar were among the 12 top IM members listed as absconders in the 42-page charge sheet filed earlier against arrested accused Mohammad Danish Ansari, Mohammad Aftab Alam, Imran Khan, Syed Maqbool and Obaid-Ur-Rehman under various penal provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and IPC for conspiracy to commit offences against India.