Lucknow, Dec 18 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday rejected bail to an al-Qaeda operative Museeruddin alias Musi alias Raju in connection with a conspiracy to carry out a pressure cooker bombing attacks in Lucknow.

Passing the order, the Lucknow bench observed that the materials to prepare the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) were recovered from the residence of Museeruddin, who along with co-accused Minhaj Ahmad had purchased them from the market.

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A bench of justices Sangeeta Chandra and Shree Prakash Singh passed the order dismissing the appeal of Museeruddin, seeking bail in the case.

In its order, the bench said, "The NIA had recovered the passbook of Museeruddin containing details of financial transaction between him and the co-accused Minhaj. It further recovered video and audio clippings which connected the appellant with the terror outfit."

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It was submitted by the appellant's counsel Azmal Khan that he was an innocent e- rickshaw puller and was falsely booked in the case. It was pleaded that Museeruddin had only received the videos on WhatsApp and had not forwarded them to anyone else.

Opposing the bail plea, National Investigating Agency's special counsel Sikha Sinha argued that there was ample material in the charge sheet against the accused appellant Museeruddin collected during the probe and hence he was not entitled to bail.

Dismissing the appeal, the bench observed, "We have gone through the judgment rendered by Special Judge, NIA Lucknow and we find that no infirmity could be pointed out in the factual contents thereof by counsel for the appellant."

The NIA had booked the appellant on July 11, 2021 after, on a tip-off, it had raided the residence of the appellant and found material to prepare cooker bomb in order to make terror blasts in Lucknow on August 15, 2021. The case was registered with NIA police station in Lucknow.

The special NIA court rejected the bail plea of Museeruddin on May 29, 2023 and hence he had filed appeal before the high court for bail.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)