What’s common between the 2007 attack on a paramilitary camp in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur town and the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the worst terror strike the country has ever seen?
The answer is 50-year-old Bihar-resident Sabauddin Ahmad – who was acquitted of murder in the 2007 case this week and of providing map details in the 2008 case in 2013 – and 49-year-old Mumbai-resident Fahim Ansari, who served and finished a 10-year sentence in the 2007 case in 2019, and on charges under the Arms Act in the 2008 case till November 2019.
The difference? While Ansari is currently out of jail and residing in Mumbai, Ahmad is lodged in Lucknow district jail, serving life term under the Gangsters Act.
The connection came to light on Wednesday, when the Allahabad high court set aside a trial court order that awarded capital punishment to Ahmad and four others in connection with the terrorist attack on a CRPF camp in Rampur on December 31, 2007, in which eight jawans died and five sustained injuries.
A bench comprising justices Sidharth Verma and Ram Manohar Narain Mishra acquitted Mohd Sharif, Ahmad, Imran Shahjad, Mohd. Farooq and Jang Bahadur Khan on murder and inflicting injury charges, saying the prosecution “miserably failed to prove the case against the accused for the principal offence beyond reasonable doubt”.
The bench, however, found Ahmad and the others guilty under Section 25 (1-A) of the Arms Act and sentenced them to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. Besides, the court imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh each on the petitioners.
The high court overturned a November 2, 2019 verdict by the Rampur trial court, which had awarded the death penalty to Ahmad, Sharif, Shahzad and Farooq, and life imprisonment to Jang Bahadur Khan. The same court awarded a 10-year jail to Ansari for facilitating their plan and illegal possession of Arms.
Ansari was released from the Bareilly Central jail later in 2019 as he was already behind bars for 12 years, more than the 10-year prison term.
But this was not their first brush with the law.
Both were picked up in February 2008 from different places in connection with the attack on Rampur CRPF camp. Members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba carried out a series of 12 coordinated strikes across Mumbai, claiming 166 lives over four days.
Ahmad and Ansari were charged with providing them maps of different locations.
But the Bombay high court acquitted them, saying better maps were available online. In 2013, the Supreme Court confirmed the acquittal.
Sabauddin and Faheem were initially arrested in Rampur CRPF camp terror attack case in February 2008, the duo was later implicated in Mumbai 26/11 terror attack case of November 2008 for providing maps of different locations in Mumbai.
Ahmad continues to face charges in the Rampur attack case. Jailor of Lucknow district jail, Ritwik Priyadarshi, confirmed that Ahmad is serving life term under the Gangsters Act and will remain in jail.
Mohammed Shoaib of the Rihai Manch, an advocacy organisation to fight for the release of Muslim youth wrongly accused of terrorism, said that Ahmed was born in Motihari in Bihar.