Cuttack: A court in Cuttack acquitted suspected terror accused Abdur Rehman in a case related to alleged links with terror outfit Al-Qaeda, citing lack of evidence.

The District and Sessions Judge Court, Cuttack, pronounced the verdict nearly 11 years after Rehman’s arrest in 2015.

Joint police operation had led to Rehman’s arrest in 2015

A joint team of the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police and the Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested Rehman from the Jagatpur area on December 16, 2015, for his alleged association with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), an affiliate of the global terror network Al-Qaeda.

Police had alleged that Rehman, a resident of Paschimkachha in Cuttack, was involved in recruiting cadres for AQIS and radicalising youths for terror-related activities.

Investigators had also claimed that he was running a madrasa in the Tangi area on the outskirts of Cuttack, where children from economically weaker families of neighbouring Jharkhand were allegedly kept in poor living conditions.

According to the investigation, Rehman was allegedly in contact with Mohammad Kafeel, who died during a failed attempt to attack Glasgow Airport in Glasgow in 2007.

The probe had further revealed that Rehman had travelled to Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates twice in 2015 and had also visited Jammu and Kashmir multiple times.

However, the court acquitted him after finding insufficient evidence to establish the charges against him.