Mumbai:
Upset by the slow progress in the Aurangabad arms haul case, the
Bombay High Court on Tuesday asked the Special Maharashtra Control
of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) Court to file a reply within two
weeks explaining the reasons why it could not speedily examine the
witnesses.
“The Bombay High Court on Tuesday asked the Trial Court to file a
reply within two weeks time clarifying why only two witnesses
examined in six year”, Advocate Shahid Nadeem Ansari said while
talking to ummid.com.
The court direction to the Special MCOCA Court by Justice S.C.
Dharmadhikari after a bail plea was forwarded before him by Abdul
Azeem Abdul Jaleel Shaikh alias RAJA, one of the accused in the
2006 arms haul case.
There are a total 247 witnesses in
the case.
"If the case will go on like this,
it will conclude after a century since Prosecution produced only
two witnesses in six years out of 247", Advocate Sharif Shaikh
told the court while arguing for the bail application.
The Supreme Court of India a year in response to an application
filed by Jamiatul Ulema Maharashtra had ordered day-to-day hearing
of the case.
Jamiatul Ulama Maharashtra is
providing free legal aid to accused Azeem along with other accused
languishing in jails from 2006.
The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had
in May 2006 claimed to have seized 43 kgs of RDX, 50 hand
grenades, 16 AK-47 rifles and over 3,000 live bullets from
Chandaud in Aurangabad, Central Maharashtra.
Twenty-one persons arrested in the case are facing trial under the
stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
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