While eight of the total 22 convicts were acquitted, two other convicts were sentenced to 14 years of jail while 3 convicts were jailed for eight years.
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Jundal was a key plotter of the 26/11 terror attacks.
The designated MCOCA court that convicted Lashkare-Taiba operative Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal and 11 others in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case will pronounce their sentences on Tuesday.
In February 2013, charges were framed against Abu Jundal in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case under sections of MCOCA, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Explosive Substances Act and the Arms Act.
The defense had argued for leniency to be shown as many convicts had been in jail throughout the trial. Special public prosecutor Vaibhav Bagade had sought the maximum sentence against the convicts.
On May 8, 2006, a team of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad chased two cars on Chandwad-Manmad Highway near Aurangabad and arrested three terror suspects.
The court also said that this was a conspiracy to strike terror by the accused in the name of “jihad”.
The Indica was allegedly driven by Jundal, who managed to give police the slip.
Though the court dropped charges of MCOCA, it had accepted prosecution’s case that the aim of the convicted accused was to create terror in the minds of people and to eliminate leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was then the Gujarat chief minister, and Right-wing leader Pravin Togadia to avenge the victims of Gujarat riots. Last was Jundal. Dressed in a white formal shirt and black pants, Jundal, accused as one of the handlers of the 10 terrorists who attacked Mumbai, told the court how he had suffered mentally and physically during his incarceration since 2012. “There may be another module”. He was deported to India from Saudi Arabia in June 2012 and has been kept in Arthur Road jail since.
In May 2006 itself, he escaped to Bangladesh from where he fled to Pakistan on a fake passport obtained with the help of LeT operatives.
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He is now facing trial in the 26/11 terror attack of 2008, in which according to the crime branch, he was sitting in the control room in Pakistan and guiding the fidayeens.
