Chand Khan, acquitted in 2002 Akshardham case, now arrested for 'cow slaughter'

Chand Khan, who was acquitted in the attack on Akshardham Temple in 2002, which claimed 32 lives, has landed himself in another case, this time for cow slaughter, reported The Indian Express .

Khan, who also goes by his alias Shan Miya, was sentenced to death , along with Adam Ajmeri and Mufti Abdul Qayyum Mansuri in July 2006 by a special court set up to try the case under Prevention of Terrorist Activities (POTA) Act. Khan and the others had used automatic weapons and hand grenades to carry out the attack, in which three commandos, including an NSG and a constable of state reserve police were also killed.

In 2003, Khan was sent to police custody for 18 days by the POTA court, according The Times of India . Later in 2014, Khan was acquitted, along with five others, due to incomplete evidence which was not enough to uphold the sentence of the accused, added the report. The justices serving in the case had slammed the investigating agency for its “shoddy” work and the Gujarat government for “not applying its mind before slapping the now extinct POTA.”

Khan, however, is not a free man anymore.

The Indian Express report mentioned that he has been lodged in Pilibhit district jail for a case filed against him at Beesalpur police station, under the Cow Slaughter Act. The report quoted the police as saying that they had recovered 500 kg of beef —while they were on a vehicle inspection drive on 15 June — and arrested three people including Khan. The police further registered a case against them under the Cow Slaughter Act and seized their car — a Maruti Zen. The police also claimed that Khan did not mention the fact that he was involved in the Akshardham attack, while his family alleged that the police were “falsely implicating him”.

In a 2003 report, The Hindu mentioned that Khan or Chand Usman Khan was an Anantnag-based car mechanic. In another report in 2006 , the paper noted that Khan was originally a resident of Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, and was only running an automobile garage in Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir. The report noted that he was also responsible for the supply of arms and ammunition.