Additional Sessions Judge H S Sharma recently ordered for initiating the trial of the accused by starting the recording of the prosecution witnesses in the case from August 4.

Rizvi, a former UP PWD official based at Udaipur in Rajasthan, and Mohd Yusuf, a Pakistan national, have been charged for their alleged offences of spying and executing a criminal conspiracy prejudicial to the safety and interests of India.

On May 25 last year, the Special Cell had arrested 62-year-old Rizvi on charges of handing over sensitive maps of military installations to the Pakistani agent Yusuf.

Rizvi was arrested from hotel Romana near Jama Masjid here when he was allegedly handing over the maps to Yusuf. His son, Ghulam Dastgir, was also present with him.

Three days after his arrest, he was removed from his post by the Rajasthan Haj Committee.After a series of raids at Rizvi’s residence in Gujarat and Hyderabad, the police had also arrested Rizvi’s son Dastgir, claiming there were sufficient evidence pointing to his complicity in the espionage network as well.

Dastgir was, however, exonerated of all the charges by the court on March 28 for want of evidence. As per the police, during his visit to Pakistan in 2006, Rizvi had met a few persons in Karachi, who convinced him to hand over the maps of military installations in Udaipur and Bikaner. Meanwhile, Rizvi, who has been in custody since his arrest, and his son Dastgir moved applications in the court for returning their personal articles recovered during their searches.