2010 Jama Masjid car blast case: Court frames charges against IM Chief Yasin Bhatkal, 10 others

A Delhi court on Tuesday ordered framing of charges against 11 accused including Indian Mujahideen (IM) chief Yasin Bhatkal in the 2010 Jama Masjid car blast case. However, Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma discharged three other co-accused in the case saying there was not enough evidence against them.

The court discharged Syed Ismail Affaque, Abdus Saboor and Riyaz Ahmad Sayeedi, who were named in the charge sheet by the police. The case pertains to an explosion near the historic Jama Masjid on September 19, 2010 soon after two suspected IM operatives had fired at a bus from which foreign tourists were descending near a gate of the mosque.

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The police had charge-sheeted these suspected IM members, including its co-founder Yasin Bhatkal, in connection with the blast case and said these operatives had carried out the strike to dissuade foreign nations from participating in the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.

The police had also said IM operatives had planned that foreign tourists found near Jama Masjid would be randomly shot and a bomb blast would be executed there for maximum casualty.

It had claimed that Bhatkal had prepared a pressure cooker IED, which was planted in the car parked outside Jama Masjid, and an explosion had taken place.

(With PTI inputs)

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