Aurangabad arms haul: Charges framed against Jundal

Mumbai: A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Friday framed charges against suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Abu Jundal in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case. Jundal is also suspected to have played a key role in the Mumbai 26/11 terror attacks in 2008. He is an accused in the 2010 German Bakery blast in Pune and an alleged plotter for attacks on vital installations in Nashik. [caption id=“attachment_619244” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Abu Jundal. PTI.[/caption] The MCOCA court charged Jundal with being involved in terrorist activities since 1996. The charge sheet in the case was filed November 2012. It charged him with the intent to strike terror, to use criminal force against government law, to create instability in Maharashtra, to exploit communal sentiments of Muslims and provoke them in the name of religion, among other illegal acts. The charges against Jundal have been framed under sections of MCOCA, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Explosive Substances Act and the Arms Act. Jundal, however, pleaded not guilty and denied being a part of any terrorist activities. His lawyer Ejaz Naqvi filed an application asking the court not to keep him in solitary confinement in Mumbai’s Arthur Road prison. A third charge sheet against Jundal was filed in Nashik Thursday in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate A.D. Sawant. In the charge sheet running over 58 pages, Jundal has been accused for aiding key Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives in their recee of the police academy, police commissionerate and the cantonment area of the city. In October last year, the Mumbai Crime Branch had filed a chargesheet in a city court against the alleged 26/11 handler, which ran into over 13,000 pages and consisted of 56 volumes. IANS