Ahmedabad:

The process of charge-framing against the 10 accused in sensational double murder case of Bharuch pertaining to cold-blooded murder of two BJP leaders on November 2, 2015, was today done in the special NIA court here.

The Special NIA court judge M K Dave fixed next date of hearing for August 9, when the proper hearing of the trial with recording of evidence would start.

Notably, Shirish Bangali, former Bharuch district president and senior RSS leader and Pragnesh Mistry, general secretary of Bharuch BJP youth wing, were shot dead by two gunmen in the evening of November 2, 2015 mysteriously and the CCTV footage of the incident had gone viral in the media.

Initially Bharuch police investigated the matter but could not get a breakthrough and later with the help of the Gujarat ATS got it. The case with connection of Dawood Ibrahim gang was later handed over to the NIA which had first filed chargesheet against 10 of the nabbed accused in May 2016 and then against one of the two absconder accused Javed alias Jabo. The other one is close aide of Dawood, Javed Chikna who was reportedly in hiding in South Africa.

The National Investigation Agency has alleged that the killings were part of a larger conspiracy of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s gang based in Pakistan and South Africa.

The first chargesheet had named 10 accused who allegedly conspired to create terror in the country by targeting local Hindu and rightwing politicians. They are Saiyed Imran, Zuheb Ansari, Inayat Patel, Mohmad Yunus, Haider Ali, Nissarbhai Sheikh, Mohsin Khan Pathan, Mohmed Altaf Shaikh, Abid Patel and Abdul Salim Ghanchi.

Two other accused Abdul Samad and Nasir Khan Pathan were out on bail as the NIA could not file charge-sheet against them in stipulated time-frame.

Former BJP president of Bharuch and senior RSS member Shirish Bangali and general-secretary of Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha Pragnesh Mistry were shot dead by two unidentified gunmen last November. After the initial probe by the State police, the case was handed over to the central agency on the grounds that the murders were committed at the instance of people based outside India.

Defence lawyer Iliyas Pathan today said that the recording of evidence in the case would start from next date of August 9.

DeshGujarat