Saturday, March 18 2006 19:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Delhi police today (Mar 18 2006) chargesheeted Kashmiri militants Tariq Ahmed Dar and Mohammed Rafiq Shah in the Paharganj blast case here in which 17 people were killed and 108 injured in October last year.

In their chargesheet filed in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Seema Maini, the Special Cell of Delhi Police charged Dar and Shah under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

Third accused Mohammed Hussein Fazili was, however, ordered to be released after the Special Cell told the court that there was insufficient evidence to connect him with the blasts.

The court will consider the chargesheet on March 24. This is the third chargesheet in connection with the Diwali eve blasts.

Dar and Shah have already been chargesheeted in the two other blast cases in Govindpuri and Sarojini Nagar Market which rocked the capital on October 29 last year.

The Sarojini Nagar blast had killed 61 people and injured 188 others, while the explosion on a bus in Govindpuri critically injured four people, including the driver and the conductor.

Several casualties in the Govindpuri blast were averted due to the alertness of the conductor and driver, who immediately evacuated the bus of its 35-40 passengers on spotting an ownerless bag lying hidden between the seats with wires sprouting from it.