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SRINAGAR: A sessions court in Jammu and Kashmir has acquitted three people arrested in 2022 for allegedly possessing arms, observing that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused were in “conscious and unauthorised possession” of the arms at the time of their arrest.Additional sessions judge Manjeet Rai on Tuesday said there was a “total absence of independent witnesses or corroborative evidence” to support the UAPA allegations of association with Al-Badr and an intended terrorist act.“Accordingly, all three accused, namely Wajid Ahmad Bhat, Masrat Bilal, and Rameez Ahmad Dar, are acquitted of all charges levelled against them in this case,” the court said, directing police to release them “forthwith, if not required in any other case.”As per the prosecution, during a checking operation at Batamaloo in Srinagar on Oct 10, 2022, the accused allegedly attempted to flee but were apprehended by police. One live grenade was recovered from Bhat, while another live grenade, an AK-47 magazine, and 30 live rounds were recovered from Bilal. Police claimed that Rs 47,500 in cash was recovered from Dar.The chargesheet said the accused disclosed that they were working as “terrorist associates” of Al-Badr and had received the arms and ammunition from a masked overground worker of the organisation in Kulgam in south Kashmir.

However, the defence counsel argued that the entire case rested solely on police witnesses, without a single independent civilian witness, despite the admitted presence of a CRPF bunker and shops on three sides of the spot from where the accused were arrested.