BRANDED AS JIHADI, MAN ASKS COURT A CHANCE TO PROVE INNOCENCE

A man arrested on charges of being a Pakistani spy here in India to kill Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, said in the trial court that he was being framed by police and asked the court to give him a chance to prove his innocence. Appearing before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav, the accused Imran and his wife, who have been in jail for the past four months, asked court’s permission to tell their side of the story. Imran alleged he was just a businessman and that cops had falsely implicated him just because he had lived in Pakistan for the past 25 years despite being an Indian citizen.

He said he had applied to the central government through Gujarat government for permanently settling in India and surrendering his Pakistani identity documents. He said when he came to India to complete the legal process, he was arrested and falsely implicated. He also alleged that all the copies of his documents, which would prove his innocence, were handed over to the IO during investigations, but they were withheld by the IO for the reasons “best known to him.” After hearing his story of the alleged torture meted out to him by police, the court gave Imran a chance to prove his innocence.