Bharuch BJP leaders twin murders: Chargesheet filed against Dawood aide

Ahmedabad: NIA today filed a supplementary charge sheet in a special court here against a South Africa- based aide of fugitive mobster Dawood Ibrahim in last year’s murder of two BJP leaders in Gujarat’s Bharuch district which it said was part of a “larger conspiracy to target persons belonging to a particular section of society”.

The document was submitted in the Court of Special NIA Judge P B Desai against Zahidmiyan Saikh, an absconding accused who originally hails from Bharuch. He is currently settled in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and is allegedly an associate of Dawood.

Zahidmiyan has been charged under sections 16, 18, 18 (B), 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) of IPC.

NIA had on May 7 this year submitted charge sheet against 10 out of the 14 accused in the case. The anti-terror agency had then said charge sheets against two absconding accused — Zahidmiyan and Javed Patel– will be filed at a later date as probe against them was still continuing.

The Central agency has said its investigation revealed Zahidmiyan, a member of the “D-gang”, as referred to by an arrested accused, Mohmad Yunus, had asked the latter to “kill Hindus involved in the 2002 Gujarat riots”.

Zahidmiyan had contacted local modules in Bharuch as part of a “larger conspiracy to target persons belonging to a particular section of society, especially those with RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal or BJP background”, the agency said.

He instigated others “to kill Hindus in the name of Islam” and to “extort money for the D-gang”. Zahidmiyan also allegedly asked them “to identify some local churches as target for arson.”

In its May 7 charge sheet, NIA said the murder of BJP’s Shirish Bangali and Pragnesh Mistry “was part of a larger conspiracy in which the co-accused based in foreign countries conspired to kill and strike terror in the minds of people belonging to a particular section of society.”

The central agency is yet to file a charge sheet against Javed, and two arrested accused, Abdul Samad and Nasir Khan Pathan, who are on bail.

Bangali, former President of Bharuch district BJP and a senior RSS member, and Mistry, General Secretary of the party’s youth wing, Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha in the district, were shot dead by two unidentified gunmen on November 2, 2015.

Besides UAPA and IPC, some of the accused have also been booked under Arms Act and Gujarat Police Act.

Initially, Bharuch police and Gujarat ATS conducted the probe and termed the murders as an “act of terror”.

Following a request by the Gujarat Government, Union Home Ministry handed over the probe to NIA in December last.

The NIA has alleged the contract for killing the BJP leaders was given by Javed Chikna, another aide of Dawood and an absconding accused in the case, apparently to avenge communal riots in Mumbai and in Gujarat in 1993 and 2002, respectively.

One of the charge-sheeted accused, Abid Patel, is brother of Javed Chikna, who is also wanted for the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts.

PTI