New Delhi: Police on October 11 filed the chargesheet against four Harkat-ul-Jehadi- e-Islami (HUJI) terrorists including Aftab Ahmed Ansari, main accused in the attack on the American Centre at Kolkata, for plotting to assassinate President A P J Abdul Kalam and kidnap cricket superstars Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly.

The chargesheet, filed before designated Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) judge S N Dhingra, named Ansari, who was deported from Dubai in February this year, besides Pakistani national Arshad Khan and Gulam Mohd Dar and Gulam Qadir Bhat of Jammu and Kashmir.

They have been charged under various sections of POTA and Indian Penal Code (IPC) for conspiring with terrorists including Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar to assassinate Kalam while on a visit to Patna and to bomb the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre at Trombay.

The accused tried to assassinate Kalam when he visited Patna but the plan did not materialise due to lack of logistic support, it charged.

They schemed to abduct Tendulkar and Ganguly to secure release of hard-core terrorist Mohd Amir Khan alias Mohd Kamran, involved in a number of bomb blast cases and now lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail.

Police had on July 23 chargesheeted seven HUJI militants, Tariq Mehmood alias Naeem, Ashahaq Ahmed alias Dilshad, Mohammed Ashraf, Abdul Majid, Mohammed Amran (all Pakistanis), Jallaluddin alias Rana, a Bangladeshi, and Mufti Mohammed Asrar from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, in connection with the case.

PTI