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CBI sources said that the court framed charges against the three under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (criminal conspiracy) read with Sections 363, 342, 302, 307, 326, 323 and 506 IPC and Section 4 and 5 of Anti-Hijacking Act, 1982 and Section 25/27 of the Arms Act, 1953.
The other seven absconding accused, including the five who actually carried out the hijacking, will be tried in absentia. All accused -- Ibrahim Athar, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Shahid Sayeed Akhtar, Zahoor Ibrahim Mistry, Shakir, Abdul Rauf and Yusuf Azhar -- are Pakistanis.
Interpol has issued a red corner notice for their arrest after non-bailable arrest warrants were issued by the designated court. Efforts are on to locate them. Though Pakistan has denied it, the CBI suspects that the hijackers are hiding in that country.
The sources said the investigation revealed that the conspiracy to hijack the airliner was hatched in the beginning of 1919, after meetings by the 10 accused in Bombay, Kalimpong, Darjeeling (in India), Karachi in Pakistan, Dhaka in Bangladesh and Kathmandu in Nepal.
The conspiracy was hatched to get militant leader Maulana Masood Azhar released from jail in Jammu, the sources said.
The hijacking drama ended only after the government conceded the demand for the release of Maulana Masood Azhar, a hardcore terrorist wanted in several cases.
Abdul Latif arranged hideouts, passports and motor driving licences on the basis of forged documents for the absconding co-accused persons, by falsely showing them as Indians and arranged for their transportation at various places.
Damai has been charged with procuring three hand grenades and three revolvers from Kalimpong and Darjeeling through co-accused Bhujel for use in the hijacking of the airliner. He later handed over the weapons to absconding co-accused Shahid Akhtar.
The absconding five accused -- Ibrahim Athar alias Chief, Sunny Ahmed Qazi alias Burger, Shahid Sayeed Akhtar alias Doctor, Zahoor Ibrahim Mistry alias Bhola and Shakir alias Shankar -- boarded IC-814 at Tribhuvan international airport in Kathmandu on December 24, 1999.
They have been charged with threatening the pilot, crew members and passengers, and even killing passenger Rupin Katyal and injuring some others.
The hijackers took the aircraft to Amritsar, Lahore and Dubai, before force-landing it at Kandahar in Afghanistan.
UNI
The Complete Coverage: Nightmare of Flight 814
The Hijack: One Year On
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