NIA court orders release of terror suspect on bail

A terror suspect, who allegedly conspired to kill prominent politicians and journalists in three states, has been ordered to be released on ‘statutory’ bail by the National Investigation Agency court since the NIA had failed to file chargesheet against him, a lawyer representing him said on Friday.

The NIA court had on Thursday ordered release of Ejaz Ahmed Mirza, working in the Defence Research and Development Organisation as a scientist, on ‘statutory’ bail, Mohammed Sultan Beary, advocate representing the accused, told PTI.

Two other accused in the case – journalist Muthi-Ur-Rehman Siddiqui and Yusuf Nalband -- were released on February 25 after the NIA court ordered their release observing there was no prosecutable evidence against them.

In all, 15 persons had been arrested in the case while the remaining 10 accused are absconding. Siddiqui and Nalband were among those arrested in August 2012 when the alleged terror plot was busted.

In its chargesheet filed in a special NIA court here on February 20 against 12 of the 15 arrested, NIA had alleged the accused had hatched a conspiracy to commit terror acts in the country by a Lashkar-e-Tayiba supported terror network based abroad and their associates in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

The NIA, which took over investigation in November 2012, had stated that charges against Siddiqui and Nalband were being dropped for lack of evidence.