New Delhi,May 05: A court here on Wednesday dismissed a plea of a suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorist, arrested in connection with the 2008 Delhi serial blasts, that he was a minor at the time of the incident and should be tried before the Juvenile Justice Board.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja rejected accused Salman’s plea saying it was clear after perusal of the evidence that he was not a minor.
“It is clear after the perusal of the documents produced and evidences placed before the court that the accused was not a minor,” the court said.
Meanwhile, the court allowed 10 days extension to Delhi police to file chargesheet against another accused Shahzad who was arrested in connection with the blasts on February 6.
The court had on May 3 reserved its order after hearing arguments by Public Prosecutor Rajeev Mohan who submitted that the medical board constituted by the AIIMS had opined that Salman’s age could be between 25 to 27. The accused had failed to produce any documentary evidence to substantiate his claim that he was a minor at the time of incident on September 13, 2008, the prosecutor said.
Salman’s counsel Khalil A Ansari and Iftikhar Ansari, during the argument, had criticised the opinion of the AIIMS’ medical board on the ground that four of the five doctors had not given separate comments.
The court had recorded statements of Salman’s school principals, one each from Azamgarh and Mumbai, and AIIMS doctors, besides his mother to determine his age.
Salman, in the application, had claimed that he was a juvenile at the time of serial blasts, that had claimed 26 lives and left over 135 other injured.
The police, however, had claimed there were contradictory reports with regard to his date of birth as the passport obtained by him on forged documents in Nepal showed it to be May 27, 1985.
–PTI