2012 Bengaluru terror plot case: Karnataka High Court refuses to discharge Sabeel

High Court of Karnataka rejects discharge plea of Sabeel Ahmed in Bengaluru terror plot case, despite Delhi acquittal.

The High Court of Karnataka has refused to discharge Sabeel Ahmed alias Motu Doctor, who was allegedly working for the banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), from the 2012 Bengaluru terror plot case.

Sabeel had sought discharge from the Bengaluru case on the ground that he was acquitted in the Delhi terror case, and hence, the trial against him cannot be continued in the Bengaluru case, in which the charges framed against him were identical to the Delhi case, in view of bar imposed in Section 300 (person once convicted or acquitted not to be tried for same offence) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

However, a Division Bench comprising Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar and Justice J.M. Khazi rejected his plea while observing that “the petitioner may have been acquitted by the Delhi court, but that acquittal does not stop the trial by the Bengaluru court. In fact the act giving rise to offences with which the petitioner was charged and tried by the Delhi court are not same as acts constituting offences for which he is being tried by the Bengaluru court.”

While pointing out that the petitioner himself had claimed during the trial before the Delhi court that the case pending in Bengaluru was altogether different, the Bench said that “maybe the acts have similarity [in Delhi and Bengaluru cases], but they are not same. Some of the witnesses to both the trial may be the same; again, it is not grounds for invoking Section 300 of Cr.P.C.”

The Bench also said the Special Court for National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases very well delineated the differences in allegations made in both the cases.

The NIA had pointed out that he was charged for allegedly raising funds and for conspiracy to a terrorist act under Sections 17, 18 and 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for being a member of terrorist organisation in the Delhi case, and in the Bengaluru case, the charge is that he took part in the terrorist activities of plotting for targetted killings of important personalities of Hindu community, politicians, journalists and police officers in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The petitioner, who was absconding for long, was arrested only in 2020, and he was later charged both in Bengaluru and Delhi cases. He was acquitted in the Delhi case in February 2023.