'Maulana's arrest by Gujarat cops illegal'

HYDERABAD: A lower court in Ahmedabad on Monday extended the judicial custody of city-based Muslim scholar Maulana Abdul Qavi by seven days. Qavi was picked up by Ahmedabad's Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) in New Delhi on March 23 as he was wanted in a case popularly referred to as the 'ISI conspiracy case.'
Terming the detention as illegal, Maulana Abdul Qavi's lawyer Tehwar Khan Pathan argued before the court that the Gujarat police had failed to produce the case diary.Qavi should have been produced before the Saket court in Delhi, but was taken by road all the way to Gujarat. The warrant for Maulana Qavi's arrest was signed by GL Singhal but he had not executed it, Pathan pointed out. Maulana Qavi's arrest has caused unrest among large sections of the city's Muslim population. Public representatives including legislators, past and present parliamentarians and corporators criticized both the BJP government in Gujarat and the Congress-led government at the Centre for allowing Maulana Qavi to be picked up in a case which they claimed was "foisted" upon him. They termed it as a return to the 2002 era, when many Muslims from the city were picked up on "trumped up" charges.
With the arrest of Maulana Qavi, there is heightened apprehension in the Old City that some of those who also figure in the same DCB-6/2003 case and have been declared absconding could be arrested soon. The Maulana is charged with providing shelter in Hyderabad to alleged conspirators who were plotting Narendra Modi's assassination and helped them flee to Bangladesh. Though he has been cited as the prime accused in the conspiracy case, there were no attempts made to arrest him all these years. He was going about his routine, which included teaching at a madrassa, without any police interference. According to sources, there were 98 accused named in the case out of which 41 have been declared absconding and non-bailable warrants were issued against them. Twenty two of the accused, including some from Hyderabad, were acquitted by courts.
According to Gujarat police records, of the total 41 persons "on the run," seven are from Hyderabad. They include Jaffar Bhai, Shakeel, Saleem, Aslam Khan, Nayeem, Afroz Mohammed Iqbal Sami and Khwaja Moinuddin. Two of the other accused from Hyderabad Naveed (Ghulam Yazdani) and Mohammed Abdul Shahed Bilal have since been killed. Naveed was gunned by the Delhi police in 2006 and Bilal by Pakistani agents in Karachi a year later.
It is the same case in which the Gujarat police had earlier arrested Maulana Mohammed Naseeruddin and his followers Mohammed Abdul Raoof, Manzoor Siddiqui, Zubairullah Shareef, Abdul Raheem, Maulana Samad, Ifteqar, Chota Ajaz, Bada Ajaz, Majeed, Mubashir, Abdul Bari and Shafeeq. Gujarat police had also arrested Moulana's nephew Mufti Asharf Ali, rector of Madrassa Sabeebul Falah. All these persons were acquitted by courts after several years of detention.
Apprehending the execution of NBWs against them soon, the Hyderabadi accused, according to sources, are speaking to lawyers. They have been told that either the warrants against them could be recalled through court or they would have to obtain anticipatory bail from courts.