Sachin kidnap plot: HUJI militant confessed voluntarily

The prosecution today told a Delhi court that a Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-jehadi Islami (HUJI) terrorist, who along with five others are accused of plotting to kidnap cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, had voluntarily recorded his confessional statement. "Arshad Khan was neither threatened nor coerced to make the self-inflicting confessional statement before M S Upadhye, the then Deputy Commissioner of Police, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA)," Chief Public Prosecutor Anita Hooda told Additional Sessions Judge Pinki.
Arshad, a native of Multan in Pakistan, had confessed that he, along with others, had come to India to kidnap the cricketers and bargain the release of two terrorists of HUJI who were then lodged in Tihar and a Rajasthan Jail. To buttress her arguments, the prosecutor referred to the testimonies of Upadhye, the then DCP, and V K Maheshwari, the then Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate who had examined Arshad after he made the confessional statement.
"The ACMM, who recorded his testimony as 13th prosecution witness in the case, was told by the accused that he had voluntarily made the statement and no policemen tortured and forced him to make it," Hooda said. The HUJI men wanted kidnap Tendulkar and Ganguly to ensure the release of its members, Nasarullah Langrial and Abdul Rahim, then lodged in Indian jails.