Israeli diplomat attack: Kazmi moves Delhi HC for stay on transfer of case

New Delhi: Syed Mohammad Kazmi, facing trial in the Israeli diplomat attack case on Tuesday moved the Delhi High Court seeking a stay on the transfer of his case from Tis Hazari to Patiala house court till charges are framed.

Following a Delhi government notification on September 12, the cases of Delhi Police Special Cell, including Kazmi`s, have been transferred from various courts to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Patiala House court. Appearing for Kazmi, advocate Mehmood Pracha told the bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and VK Rao that Additional Sessions Judge Atul Kumar Garg of Tis Hazari court has completed the hearing of arguments on framing of charges and it is unfair to transfer the case at this stage. Seeking that the bench transfer the matter back to ASJ Garg`s court, the lawyer said that "from April 5 to August 8, the court has held 12 hearings and it has completed its hearing on arguments on charge and also heard Kazmi`s plea for discharge. "Let that court frame charges and then the case may be transferred," the lawyer said, alleging that the prosecution has adopted delaying tactics. The bench asked the counsel for state and police to seek instruction and inform the court on Kazmi`s plea by Friday. On July 16, the police had filed a supplementary charge sheet in the case. Kazmi, an Indian journalist, is facing the charges of conspiring with foreign elements and others for the terror strike. The second charge sheet has elaborated the earlier charges that the conspiracy was hatched outside India and it has been substantiated by the reports procured by the probe agency from Israel and the Indian Embassy in Iran. Kazmi is the sole person accused in the first charge sheet in the February 13, 2012 attack in which an Israeli woman diplomat and her Indian driver were injured. He has been charged under various provisions of the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and other sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) including attempt to murder. He has also been chargesheeted under the provisions of Explosive Substances Act. The diplomat, Tal Yehoshua, and the driver of the Embassy vehicle, were among four people injured in the blast. Kazmi was arrested on March 6, 2012. He was granted bail by the apex court on October 19 last year. The charge sheet also names Iranian nationals Houshang Afshar Irani, Masod Sedaghatzadeh, Syed Ali Mehdi Sadr and Mohammed Reza Abolghasemi as suspects in the case. According to the charge sheet, Houshang Afshar Irani went to Bangkok and then to Kuala Lumpur, while Masod Sedaghatzadeh has been detained in Malaysia since March 14. According to the police, Afshar had visited India on April 25, 2011 and left the country on May 6, 2011. He had come back to India again on January 29, 2012 but left for Malaysia on February 13 evening, within hours after the attack on the Israeli diplomat here. PTI