Duo Were Also Named In Bhopal-Ujjain Passenger Train Attack In 2017
Lucknow: An NIA Special Court in Lucknow pronounced the death sentence for Atif Muzaffar (29) and Mohammed Faisal Khan (30) for killing retired school principal Ram Babu Shukla in 2016 in “fulfilment and furtherance of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) agenda by spreading fear and terror among the people”. The two were also named in the terror attack on Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train on March 7, 2017.
Atif was arrested from Pipariya in Madhya Pradesh on March 8, 2017, while Faisal was held from Jajmau in Kanpur on March 7, 2017. They are both lodged in Lucknow district jail ever since.
The court charged the two guilty under IPC’s sections 302 (murder), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), along with sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The court also imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh each on the two. The judgment was announced by special judge, NIA court, Dinesh Kumar Mishra.
To recall, on October 24, 2016, Ram Babu Shukla, who retired as the principal of Swami Atmaprakash Brahmachari Junior High School in Kanpur, was killed while he was returning home on a bicycle. He was attacked by the accused near village Pyondi in Kanpur. The case was handed over to the NIA in November 2017. Atif worked at a mobile repair shop while Faisal was working at a general store.
The anti-terror agency had filed a chargesheet against the two accused on July 12, 2018, after detailed investigations, which revealed that the accused had been “radicalised by the ISIS ideology and were out to kill people whom they believed to be disbelievers (kafirs)”. The NIA had stated that the attack on the retired principal was a ‘lone wolf’ style of attack. A third accused, Mohammad Saifulla, had died in Lucknow during the exchange of fire with the Anti-Terrorist Squad, March 7, 2017, in Kakori.
The central agency had also stated that the two had planned to bomb PM Modi’s Dussehra rally during 2016 in Lucknow.
“They had murdered Ram Babu Shukla to strike terror and alarm in the minds of the common people,” the NIA said.
In its charge sheet, the agency had stated that the two were ISIS sympathisers and had visited West Bengal and Kerala for training in arms and bomb making. The two had also tried to visit Syria via Pakistan.
The NIA recovered the pistol used in the retired principal’s murder from a house in Haji Colony, Lucknow. The bullet recovered from Shukla’s body was tested at FSL, Chandigarh and it was found that it was shot from the same weapon. To gather important clues in this case, 64 witnesses along with 61 documents were examined in the court.
Statements of 29 witnesses, including present state minister Asim Arun, who was then IG of ATS, were recorded in the case. Arun had also lodged the FIR in this case.
