Another MCOCA court shifted to Arthur Road jail

Days after a MCOCA court here was shifted to high-security Arthur Road Jail owing to security concerns over dramatic escape of alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorist Afzal Usmani, another court from the same premises has been relocated to the jail.
"This is the second court to be shifted to the Arthur Road jail. This court is presently conducting trial in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case", defence advocate Shahid Nadeem said.
The MCOCA court, shifted earlier to the jail, was conducting trial in the 2008 case of terror emails allegedly sent out by the IM claiming responsibility of Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts, in which Usmani is an accused, among other cases.

Earlier, the trials in 1993 serial bomb blasts case and that of lone surviving terrorist in the 26/11 carnage Ajmal Kasab (later hanged), were held in the jail premises.
Usmani (37), facing trial in connection with the Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts, had given cops a slip from the court premises at Kala Ghoda in South Mumbai on September 20 when he was brought there, along with 18 others, for the trial from Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai.
He was re-arrested a month later.

The case pertains to 21 bomb blasts that had rocked Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, within a span of 70 minutes, killing 56 people and wounding over 200. Police had also found 26 unexploded bombs at different locations in Surat between July 28 and 30, 2008.

IM had sent e-mails to various TV channels claiming responsibility for the blasts.
In the 2006 arms haul case, the Maharashtra ATS had claimed to have seized 43 kg of RDX, 50 hand grenades, 16 AK-47 rifles and over 3,000 bullets from Chandvad on Mumbai-Agra Highway.
In the span of four years after the seizure, the ATS has arrested 21 persons.
Suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba operative and key plotter of 26/11 terror strikes, Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, is also accused in this case.