Aurangabad arms haul case: Court to pronounce quantum of sentence on Aug 2

The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court in Mumbai will pronounce quantum of sentence for the 12 convicts in 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case on August 2.

Arguments of both sides were completed today.

Public prosecutor Vaibhav Bagade sought maximum punishment for all the accused in the case.

As a special MCOCA court in Mumbai found 26/11 terror attacks key plotter Abu Jundal and 11 others guilty in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case, defence counsel Mubin Solkar earlier on Thursday said one of the most important aspect of this case is that all the accused have been acquitted of the charge under MCOCA which is a huge setback for the prosecution.

On May 8, 2006, a Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) team chased a Tata Sumo and an Indica car on Chandwad-Manmad highway near Aurangabad and arrested three terror suspects and seized 30 kilogram of RDX, 10 AK-47 assault rifles and 3,200 bullets.

Jundal, who hails from Beed district of Maharashtra, drove to Malegaon and a few days later he escaped to Bangladesh from where he fled to Pakistan, according to the state police.

Earlier, the trial had been stayed by the Supreme Court after one of the accused had challenged the constitutional validity of certain provisions in the MCOCA invoked on the accused. The stay was lifted in 2009.

In 2013, the ATS filed a chargesheet against all the accused for plotting various terror strikes since 2006.