A court here has acquitted Paramjeet Singh Bheora, alleged India chief of the banned Babbar Khalsa International, of charges of possessing firearms and firing at a police station in 2006, sources said on Thursday.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh acquitted Bheora by giving him the benefit of doubt.
Charges of criminal conspiracy, attempt to murder, assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharging his duty and other various provisions of the Arms Act, the Explosive Substance Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act were slapped against Bheora.
The prosecution said Bheora was arrested in Delhi along with Bhupinder Singh and Jasbir Singh in March 2006 and arms and ammunition seized from the three.
Bheora had denied all charges and said he was picked up from Punjab and falsely implicated in the case and all recoveries of weapons were planted on him.
Charges against Bheora were framed on September 20, 2011. In 2010, the court convicted Jasbir for using as genuine a forged document but acquitted him of other charges along with Bhupinder Singh.
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In its order in Bheora's case, the court said the co-accused of Bheora were acquitted of similar charges, and that the same set of evidence was relied upon in the present trial.
"Hence, not only in view of the acquittal of similarly situated co-accused Bhupinder Singh and Jasbir Singh but also in view of inconsistencies in the version of the prosecution witnesses qua Paramjeet Singh (Bheora) coupled with the fact there is no public witness associated with his apprehension or recoveries effected from him, the benefit of the doubt in the case of the prosecution has to go in favour of Paramjeet Singh," the court said.
"The version of the prosecution regarding the manner of apprehension and recoveries made is not reliable," the court said.
In August, a Chandigarh court convicted BKI chief Jagtar Singh Hawara and Bheora in the sensational case of jailbreak of 2004 in Burail in the union territory, but acquitted 14 other accused.