The Kerala High Court on Thursday acquitted Thadiyantavida Nazeer and Shafaz in the 2006 Kozhikode twin blast case.
Both the first accused Nazeer and the fourth accused Shafaz are Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives.
The court also dismissed an appeal filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) challenging the trial court's order of acquitting the third accused Abdul Halim and ninth accused Abubaker Yusuf in the case.
The Division Bench of Justice Vinod K Chandran and Justice C Jayachandran issued the judgement of the appeal filed by Nazeer and Shafaz seeking to quash the life sentence imposed on them by the NIA court. They refuted the NIA court's finding that they had committed offences under the UAPA.
The blast occurred on March 3, 2006, at the Kozhikode Mofussil bus stand and at the KSRTC stand. The case was taken over by the NIA in 2009. The NIA had filed a chargesheet in 2010 under sections of the UAPA, IPC and Explosive Substances Act.
The trial of three of the nine accused in the case is yet to be completed. Two of them are still absconding.
( With inputs from ANI )
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