Gujarat court awards life in jail to 3 from West Bengal for conspiracy to wage war against state

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An additional sessions court in Rajkot convicted and sentenced three men from West Bengal to life imprisonment for conspiring to wage war against the state. The verdict was delivered on Tuesday, with the court clarifying that "life term" meant imprisonment for the remainder of their natural lives, The Indian Express reported.

Abdul Sukarali, alias Abddulah Hajrat Sheikh, 20, Aman Siraj Malik, 23, and Saif Navaz Abu Sahid, 23, were arrested by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on July 31, 2023, from Rajkot. Malik belongs to Hooghly district while Sheikh and Sahid belong to Bardhaman district of West Bengal.

They had been booked under IPC Section 121(a) (conspiring to overawe, by means of criminal force or the show of criminal force, the central government or state government) and Sections 25(1-B)A (illegal possession of firearms and ammunition) and 27 (unlawful use of arms and ammunition) of the Arms Act.

According to the report, the three were employed as jewellery artisans at Rajkot’s Soni Bazaar from where they were arrested for alleged links with militant organisation Al Qaeda.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Public Prosecutor S K Vora said, “The ATS, on July 26, 2023, received information that some people were spreading propaganda regarding the state of Kashmiri Muslims. Based on the information, the three men were arrested on July 31, 2023. The ATS seized a pistol and 18 cartridges from the accused. Devices with WhatsApp messages on Kashmiri Muslims and propagating disaffection against the government were also recovered from the accused. Based on these chats, the charges were proved.”

Vora added that the defence had argued that the chats didn’t mean they were waging war against the state. “But the Section itself provides that if such a conversation is carried out, it amounts to conspiring to wage war against the state,” he was quoted by The Indian Express as saying.

“I argued that such people are trained for months together, otherwise they wouldn’t have such a mindset and weapons. I also argued that if they are released from jail in 4-5 years, they could be radicalised further,” Vora added.

Additional Sessions Judge Ikramkhan Bashirkhan Pathan, in an order pronounced on Tuesday, convicted the three of waging war, attempting to wage war, or abetting its attempt against the state.

Vora, however, clarified that the prosecution failed to prove the convicts’ alleged links to any fundamentalist, radical, or terrorist organisations.

Regarding evidence presented during the one-and-half-year trial, Vora said, “The evidence included the pistol, cartridges, and chats in a group called ‘Rah-e-Hidayat’ and admissions of visiting certain masjids.”

Vora said the defence had argued that the three men had never propagated their messages to other persons. “The defence examined two witnesses who said the accused were never seen preaching anti-national propaganda from the mosque,” he said. However, during cross examination, Vora said, the prosecution showed that the witnesses just visited the masjid for 10-15 minutes and they didn’t know what the accused persons used to do after that.

Case history

On July 30, 2023, the Gujarat ATS arrested three men from West Bengal employed in Rajkot’s jewellery industry for their alleged links with Al Qaeda. Ali and Nawaz hail from Bardhaman district, while Malik is a native of Hooghly. Malik lived near Jilla Garden, whereas the other two stayed at jewellery shops in Soni Bazaar.

According to the report, at the time of the arrests, ATS officials told reporters that Aman Malik had communicated with foreign handlers via social media apps like Telegram and Conversation, and had joined a group called ‘Al Qaeda Tanzim’.

“Aman then got in touch with a person named Muzamil via Telegram. The latter allegedly helped him procure a semi-automatic pistol and encouraged him to join jihad and migrate,” the ATS had said, adding that Aman got in touch with his acquaintances Abdul Sukur Ali and Saif Nawaz, and invited them to join ‘Al Qaeda Tanzim’ and facilitated their entry into it.