ATS to move court to book Dhandhuka murder accused under UAPA, GUJCTOC

They said the sections of the UAPA to be added against the five accused will be section 13 1 (a) and (b) for whoever takes part or commits or advocates, abets, advises or incites the commission of, any unlawful activity, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term that may extend to seven years, section 16 1(a) for whoever commits a terrorist act shall, if such act has resulted in the death of any person, be punishable with death or imprisonment for life, section 17 for Punishment for raising funds for terrorist act, section 18 for conspiracy and section 20 for punishment for being member of terrorist gang or organisation.

The sections of the GUJCTOC Act that will be added are sections 3 1(1) and 3 (2), which are punishments for committing an offence of terrorist act or organised crime which results in death of a person, conspired to commit, abet, advocate or facilitate terrorist act offences.

Bharwad, 30, was allegedly shot dead by two bike-borne men in Dhandhuka of Ahmedabad on January 25 when he was travelling on a motorcycle. Later, police revealed that the murder followed allegedly after an objectionable social media video post by Bharwad.

Two clerics — Maulvi Qamar Gani Usmani, Maulana Mohammad Ayyub Javarawala, and three others — Sabbir Chopda, Imtiyaz Pathan and Azeem Sama, have been arrested so far. All five have been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 302 for murder, 307 for attempt to murder and 120b for criminal conspiracy as well as sections of the Arms Act.

According to police, while it was Sabbir and Imtiyaz who allegedly shot at Bharwad, the weapon was allegedly provided by Javarwala and Sama and the shooters were allegedly instigated by Usmani.

Usmani was also arrested in November last year by the Tripura police under section 13 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for advocating, abetting, inciting any unlawful activity. He was finally given bail after two weeks by a court in Tripura.

“It has come out in investigation that the deceased Bharwad posted a story on Facebook with objectionable content 20 days prior to his murder, after which an FIR was lodged against him. The accused later got bail, after which he was shot dead by assailants for bringing disrepute to Islam. Five persons have been arrested in the case yet. During investigation, acts of terrorism have come out,” read a statement from the ATS.

An ATS team conducted a search operation at the residence of Maulana Mohammad Ayyub Javarawala in Jamalpur on Tuesday in which an airgun, which doesn’t need a licence, was recovered by the team.

Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi met representatives of Bharwad community at his office in Gandhinagar on Tuesday where he assured speedy justice to the victims.