HC to hear today mosque committee plea in Sambhal Jama Masjid violence case

Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court will on Monday take up the Sambhal Jama Masjid violence case, following a petition filed by mosque committee Chairman Zafar Ali challenging the police charge sheet.

Ali has moved the trial court seeking quashing of the charge sheet filed in connection with the clashes that erupted during the survey of the Sambhal Jama Masjid on November 24, 2024.

His name surfaced during the investigation, leading to his arrest and subsequent imprisonment. On July 24, the High Court granted him bail.

The matter is listed before a single bench of Justice Sameer Jain, which is expected to hear the case later in the day.

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The development comes in the backdrop of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Uttar Pradesh Police filing a mammoth charge sheet running over 4,400 pages across six cases linked to the deadly violence.

Officials announced that Shariq Satha, a resident of Sambhal, is believed to be the mastermind behind the riots. The violence resulted in five deaths and many injuries.

Satha, who allegedly operated a car theft ring involving over 300 stolen vehicles from the Delhi-NCR region, has also been connected to underworld figure Dawood Ibrahim and Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI. Investigators revealed that he fled India using a forged passport.

Investigators uncovered a series of suspicious financial transactions linked to account holders in Sambhal, along with the discovery of foreign-manufactured cartridges at the sites of the clashes.

Police reported that Satha’s close associates were responsible for the gunfire that resulted in the deaths of four victims. However, there was no First Information Report (FIR) filed regarding the fifth death, raising additional questions.

The charge sheet has named Samajwadi Party MP Ziaur Rahman Barq and the son of local MLA Iqbal Mahmood among the accused. In total, 37 individuals have been specifically identified, while an additional 3,750 people are accused but remain unnamed in connection with the violence.

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