Five Muslim men including Thadiyantavide Nazeer and Sharafuddeen, the two accused in the Bangalore blast cases, and three others were discharged in a case related to the alleged illegal possession of explosive substances from Kannur by the Kochi Special Court of the National Investigation Agency.
The accused were entitled for discharge as there was no evidence to show that any of the accused persons ever had any connection with the possession of the material, noted the Special Judge K. Kamanees.
Proceeding with a case, which totally lacked any material to connect the accused on any score will only entail wastage of judicial time, Special Judge K. Kamanees held.
Though the accused were represented by lawyers in the court, they did not argue on framing charges, The Hindu reported. However, the court on itself inspected the records and ordered the discharge.
The prosecution had alleged that the accused persons, in furtherance of their common intention to cause explosions across the country, had illegally possessed the explosive substance and hid it in the property abutting the house of the fifth accused. The police team, which conducted a search in 2009 had claimed that the explosive materials were found out by them.
To prove the offence under Section 4 of the Explosive Substances Act, the NIA court observed that the there should be proof that the accused possessed or had under their control any explosive substance, with intent to endanger life or to cause serious injury to the property, or to enable any other person by means to endanger life or cause serious injury to property in India.
However, there was no direct evidence to show that the explosive substances recovered by the cops in the case were dealt with by any of the accused persons, according to The Hindu.
No records were also available to substantiate the argument that the accused had possessed the explosive materials.
The NIA court noted that the materials produced by the prosecution were highly insufficient even to make out a prima facie case against the Muslim men that they had in some way or other been responsible for hiding the ammonium nitrate in the property. The prosecution records utterly failed to bring home any offence under Section 4 of the Explosive Substances Act, the judge held.