HC grants bail to the 7/11 blast accused

Mumbai, Nov 7 (UNI) The Bombay High Court today granted bail to a 7/11 mumbai blast accused who had allegedly sent an e-mail to a News Channel stating that Lashkar-e-Qahar was behind the serial blasts.

Justice S C Dharmadhikari granted bail to Shariq Ahmed Khan along with two sureties of Rs 10,000 each. Also, he will have to attend the Colaba Police Station twice a month.

The court was told that Shariq had allegedly sent an e-mail initially in 2001 to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre(BARC) from the email [email protected] [email protected], threatening to attack and blow up vital installations.

Defence counsel Amin Solkar contended that the accused was just 13-year-old then and the two other accused in this matter had already been arrested in October 2001. The police had also seized the CPU of the computer from which the mail was sent.

Also, the police had not produced any evidence against Shariq except that he had sent the email to Aaj Tak after serial blasts on suburban trains in the megapolis.

Shariq was arrested in Bhopal on July 27 after the blasts.

The Colaba Police Station, where the BARC case is lodged, sought transfer of Shariq from Bhopal. He applied for bail in September after coming to Mumbai.

Additional Public Prosecutor Swapnil Pednekar opposed the bail on the grounds that the investigations were in progress and the accused had terrorist friends which could complicate the case.

Also, the police was tracking the author of the email id -- [email protected].

However, the court held that the accused was a young boy and pursuing his studies in Bhopal. Also, on the grounds that no chargesheet had been filed against him during 95 days when he was in custody, he was eligible for the bail by default.

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