The court let off city resident D Rana observing that the witnesses were unable to establish "any linkage" between him and Imad Ali Hussain Ali Jamil Ahmed and Haythem M Hassan Saffer of Baghdad, convicted in 1997 in the case.
Rana and the two Iraqi nationals were facing trial on the allegations that on April 4, 1996, Ahmed was found possessing foreign and Indian currency equivalent to Rs 10.97 lakh which was given to him by Saffer on March 27, 1996 in a hotel here and which he was trying to illegally take out of India.
Rana was also facing trial on the allegation that on March 27, 1996, he had purchased 2.19 kgs of gold from the two accused and prior to that, he had also bought about 16 kgs of gold from Ahmed between August 1995 and March 1996.
Ahmed and Saffer were convicted by the court here in April 1997 while charges under the provisions of the Customs Act was framed against Rana in February 1997.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Gautam Manan acquitted Rana saying that there was no evidence to connect Rana with the two foreigners.
"It is noteworthy that none of the witnesses have been able to establish any linkage between accused number one and two (the two Iraqi national) with accused number three (Rana) and even the documents produced on behalf of the complainant does not prove that the accused number three used to purchase smuggled gold from the other accused persons," he said. (More)