ISI conspiracy case: 25 accused heard

The designated Pota court judge, Jyotsnaben Yagnik, on Sunday finished recording further statements of 25 of the prime accused of the ‘ISI Conspiracy Case’.

The court had earlier finished recording statements of all the witnesses in the case including the statement of investigating officer, GL Singhal. A total of 201 witnesses have already deposed before the court with regard to their individual roles in the case.

The accused include Mohammed Parvez Abdulkaym Sheikh, Mohammed Abdul Wahid Sareshwala alias Goru, Mohammed Yunus Sareshwala, Rehan Abdul Majid Punthawala and Munavar Baig Yakubmian Mirza, all of whom were nabbed by CB sleuths in 2003. The crime branch had then claimed that it had busted a gang that had arrived in the city after receiving training from Pakistan.

Sources told DNA that the accused have confessed that they were trained by terrorist organisations in Pakistan. A reliable source said, “The accused have confessed to receiving training and have also explained in their statements where they were being trained.

“According to the statements, Mufti Sufiyan, the cleric arrested from Hyderabad, had motivated the youths to go to Pakistan. They had then crossed the Bangladesh border and had procured fake passports after which they entered Karachi, where they state, they had received their training. They then came back to India using the same route,” a source said.

There were total 44 accused in the case. A total of 2,025 documents have already been produced in the court.