Bengaluru, Oct 5 (DHNS): A Bengaluru court on Tuesday convicted a Kashmiri man for being an operative of militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and hatching a criminal conspiracy to attack information technology companies and other installations in the city.

Bilal Ahmed Kota alias Imran Jalal, a native of Jammu and Kashmir, was convicted by Additional City Civil Court judge (CCH-56) Kotrayya M Hiremath under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Arms Act and the Indian Penal Code. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on Wednesday. Kota, the prime accused in the case, was arrested by the anti-terrorism cell of the Bengaluru police on January 5, 2007.

Five other accused remain at large. They are Alqama alias Lala Khan, a Pakistani national and operational commander of LeT India, Khalid, also a Pakistani national, Basharat, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, Azam Cheema, a native of Sialkot in Pakistan and said to be a former ISI agent, and Rajesh, a resident of Pune.

Kota was arrested by a team headed by K N Jitendranath, the then Assistant Commissioner of Police, following an Intelligence Bureau (IB) tip-off. The police recovered an AK-47 assault rifle, 200 rounds of ammunition and a satellite phone from him. They seized another AK-47, 200 rounds of ammunition and five hand grenades from his house in Hosapete.

Kota, who studied at Acharya Polytechnic in Bengaluru and lived in Peenya till 1994, opened a handicrafts store in Hampi later. The prosecution’s case was that he underwent arms training in Pakistan in 1995-96, joined the LeT in 1999 and came into contact with many of its active operatives.

In 2002, he obtained a passport on fake identity and address of Hongasandra, Bengaluru. In June 2005, he received a satellite phone in Srinagar, and in September of that year, he went to Islamabad through the Attari checkpost by train using the fake passport. Kota received directions to carry out a recce of IT companies, the Vidhana Saudha and the airport in Bengaluru. After his return from Pakistan, he purchased several SIM cards under a pseudonym and created e-mail IDs to communicate with his handlers in Pakistan. Another accused, Lala Khan, got an identity card from Hosapete though he operated from Islamabad, Pakistan. According to the prosecution, Kota went to Pakistan again in April 2006 and attended the LeT’s Jihadi training camp at Muzzafarabad.

“The e-mail records retrieved showed that Kota was constantly in touch with several LeT operatives. In some of the e-mail exchanges, he requested them to help one of the accused who was arrested in the Delhi Red Fort attack case,” Special Public Prosecutor C A Ravindra said.