Kandhar hijacking judgement reserved till Jan 29

Patiala, Jan 18 (UNI) A special court today reserved its judgement in the case of the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 from Kathmandu to Kandhar in Afghanistan.

The arguments were completed in this case yesterday.

Special Judge of the case and Session Judge of Patiala Inderjit Singh Walia reserved the orders till the next date of hearing, fixed for January 29.

The case, which has been continuing here since March 2001, saw over 120 witnesses being examined. The case continued in - camera in the Patiala Central Jail, keeping in view its sensitivity.

Defence Council Rajinder Singh Sodhi and H V Rai pleaded the court to recall many witnesses in the case. They said the case was purely on circumstantial evidence and alleged confession of the accused.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which arrested three conspirators in the hijack case - Abdul Latif, Dalip Kumar and Yusuf Nepali - pursued the case here for almost seven years. They were arrested from Mumbai in December 1999, a few days after the hijacking.

The conspirators have been accused of helping the Pakistani hijackers in procuring fake passports and other papers and also helping them take weapons aboard the aircraft that was hijacked later. .

The IC-814 flight, with about 180 passengers and crew, was hijacked by five men after it took off from the Nepal's capital on December 24, 1999.

The plane was taken towards Pakistan but later landed at Amritsar airport. It then took off again and finally landed at Kandhar city of southern Afghanistan.

The hijackers sought and secured the release of dreaded terrorists, including Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) chief Maulana Azhar Masood, from Indian prisons.

One passenger was killed in the incident while others were released after a seven-day ordeal at Kandhar.

The then Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh flew with the terrorists to be released at Kandhar to secure the release of the passengers on board IC-814.

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