Arms haul case: charges framed against Jundal

The special MCOCA court on Friday framed charges against 26/11 terror attack handler Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case.

The special MCOCA court on Friday framed charges against 26/11 terror attack handler Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case.

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The trial against Jundal and 21 other accused, who are in jail since 2006, is likely to start by the end of the month.

The court charged Jundal under different sections of MCOCA, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Explosives Substances Act and the Indian Penal Code.

The charges include hatching criminal conspiracy and gathering arms and ammunition to wage war against the nation.

The prosecution alleged that Jundal and the other arrested accused had been part of terrorist activities since 1996.

The accused have also been charged for conspiring against the government and taking training from the neighbouring country.

Apart from this, the accused were charged for being active members of the banned organisation Student Islamic Movement of India (Simi) and terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Jundal, however, pleaded innocent before the court. When the charges were read out to him, he denied all of them and even said that he had never been a part of Simi or LeT.

According to the prosecutions, on May 8, 2006, a team of Maharashtra ATS had chased a Tata Sumo and an Indica car on Chandwad-Manmad highway near Aurangabad.

The team had arrested three terror suspects and seized 30kg RDX, 10 AK-47 assault rifles and 3,200 bullets. The Indica was allegedly driven by Jundal, who managed to give police the slip.