india

Updated: Mar 06, 2016 10:39 IST

The police could not prove that a man with a blown off hand is a bomb-maker, a Delhi court said on Saturday. The court discharged Abdul Karim Tunda and three others accused of leading terror strikes in New Delhi in 1997, citing lack of evidence against them.

The court said there was no proof that Tunda could be a Lashkar-e-Taiba bomb-maker.

It was the fourth and final case in which Tunda has been discharged.

The Delhi police had filed an FIR against Tunda under the Explosives Act and for leading a terrorist conspiracy against India but an additional sessions judge of Patiala House court noted that there was “no prima facie evidence against him to proceed to trial.”

Abdul Karim’s co-accused had earlier disclosed that his left hand got blown off while making a bomb in 1985 in Mumbai, after which he got the nickname Tunda.

Considered a prize catch by the police, who thought that he was a key plotter of 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Tunda was one of the 20 terrorists Pakistan had handed over following the devastating attacks on the city.

Already let off in the Sadar Bazaar and Kotla bomb blasts for lack of evidence, Tunda was accused of being the conspirator of nearly 40 explosions here between 1993 and 1997.

The FIR was registered in 1994 against him and three other accused under the provisions of Explosive Substance Act.

The FIR was registered in 1994 against him and three other accused under the provisions of Explosive Substance Act.

Absconding for years, Tunda was declared a wanted man before being arrested from Uttarakhand on August 16, 2013. Special Cell officers received a “tip-off” about his location by the CIA. A Pakistani passport issued on 23 January 2013 was recovered from him.

While throwing out Delhi Police Special Cell’s case, the court was moved by defence counsel MS Khan’s arguments that no charges could be proved against the man whose right hand is missing as if blown-off.

The court said Tunda’s co-accuseds’ disclosure statements were not legally admissible as they had only been made before police. Apart from the passport, nothing was recovered from Tunda at the time of the arrest.