Syed Anzar Shah, arrested for his alleged involvement with Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), has denied before a court here the charges of conspiring, giving provocative speeches for recruiting Indian youths and establishing a base for the terror outfit.
Claiming innocence before Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh, the accused refuted the terror charge levelled by Special Cell of Delhi Police which is probing the case.
Appearing for Shah, advocate M S Khan yesterday submitted before the court that his client's name had appeared in the statement of a prosecution witness recorded by the court.
"However, the name was absent from the witness' statement given before the police," said the counsel, while arguing on the issue of framing of charges against the accused.
"The police claim that an incriminating letter was given by co-accused Mohd Asif to Shah. However, that letter could not be recovered by the probe agency," he contended.
He termed as baseless the police claim that with the purpose of establishing a base for AQIS, Shah had delivered provocative speeches to motivate youths to join the outfit.
"No transcript, video or any other clip is available in this case," the counsel said.
Shah, along with Mohd Asif, Zafar Masood, Mohd Abdul Rehman and Abdul Sami, was arrested in the case by the police.
They were charged by the agency with offences under the provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
They were arrested between December 2015 and January 2016 from different parts of the country.
Besides the five arrested accused, the police have booked
12 others who are at large and the court had earlier issued non-bailable warrants against them.
The absconding accused are Syed Akhtar, Sanaul Haq, Mohd Sharjeel Akhtar, Usman, Mohd Rehan, Abu Sufiyan, Syed Mohd Arshiyan, Syed Mohd Zishan Ali, Sabeel Ahmed, Mohd Shahid Faisal, Farhatullah Ghori and Mohd Umar.
All the 17 have been chargesheeted for offences under sections 18 (punishment for conspiracy), 18-B (punishment for recruiting of any person or persons for terrorist act) and 20 (punishment for being member of terrorist gang or organisation) of UAPA.
The police have alleged that terror outfit Al-Qaeda was trying to set up its base in India under the banner of AQIS and some youths from districts of western Uttar Pradesh had already left India and joined its cadre in Pakistan.
It has claimed that one of the modules of the outfit was active in Sambhal district in Uttar Pradesh.
The accused were in touch with terrorists from Pakistan, Iran and Turkey via social media and mobile phones, and they had visited these countries and had also financed AQIS and motivated the youths for 'jehad', the police have said.
The FIR in this case was registered after arrest of Asif on December 14 last year.
