Fahim Ansari and Mohammad Sabahuddin Ahmed might have been let off by the Mumbai special court in the 26/11 terrorist attacks case on India's commercial capital, but they were clearly not off the hook in Uttar Pradesh, where cops were all set to nail them in an earlier attack on a Central Reserve Police Force camp in Rampur city, about 300 km from Lucknow.
"Their links with the Mumbai attackers including Ajmal Kasab were revealed during the course of their interrogation after their arrest in connection with the armed attack on CRPF group centre in Rampur on the night of December 31, 2007," senior Uttar Pradesh police official Brij Lal told mediapersons in Lucknow on Monday evening.
"Even though they had now been acquitted by the Mumbai court, they would still be tried in UP for their involvement in the Rampur attack that left seven CRPF jawans and one civilian dead," Lal stressed.
Ansari was picked up from Rampur, while Sabahuddin was arrested from a hideout in Lucknow on February 10, 2008. Both were stated to have received training in Pakistani based Lashkar-e-Tayiba camps.
Following recovery of a few Mumbai maps from their possession, the UP cops informed their counterparts in Maharashtra, who sought their remand and eventually charged them for their alleged nexus with Ajmal Kasab and the Pakistani suicide squad that unleashed terror in Mumbai on the night of November 26, 2008.
However, the Mumbai court did not see anything incriminating about the maps recovered from the possession of the two arrested men.
Yet, while refuting the argument that their acquittal by the Mumbai court had weakened the UP case, Brij Lal maintained, "We have sufficient strong evidence to establish their involvement in the CRPF group centre attack and I am confident that they will not be able to escape conviction in this case."
