A Special Court in Patiala on Tuesday deferred to February 5 its judgement against three persons arrested on conspiracy and other related charges in connection with the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight IC-814 during its flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi nearly eight years ago.
Special judge Inderjit Singh Walia had on January 18 reserved judgement for Tuesday after the conclusion of the arguments in the case of the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 from Kathmandu on December 24, 1999.
The hearing was conducted inside the high security Patiala Central Jail, where the three conspirators Abdul Latif, Dalip Kumar and Yusuf Nepali are lodged since their arrest about eight years ago.
The three have been accused of helping the hijackers in procuring fake passports and other papers and also helping them take weapons aboard the aircraft that was hijacked.
The hijackers sought and secured the release from Indian prisons of dreaded terrorists, including Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar, Ahmed Zargar and Sheikh Ahmed Omar Sayeed.
Those named in the chargesheet in the case include Ibrahim Athar, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Sahid Sayeed Akhtar, Zahoor Ibrahim Mistry, Shakir, and Maulana Masood Azhar's brother Abdul Rahul and brother-in-law Yusuf Azhar.
Rupen Katyal, returning after his honeymoon in Kathmandu, was killed, while other passengers were released after a seven-day ordeal at Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.
The plane was taken towards Pakistan but later landed at the Amritsar airport from where it took off and landed in Lahore. After refuelling, it took off and finally landed at Kandahar after a stop-over in Dubai.
The deferment was announced as the judge was still going through the documents of the case submitted by the defence and the prosecution, the Central Bureau of Investigation, for about seven years.
The IC-814 Airbus A300 flight had 189 persons including the crew. The persons behind the planning and execution of the hijacking have not been arrested so far.
Additional reportage: PTI
