They were, however, acquitted along with three others of entering into a conspiracy to commit a terrorist act. The five were accused under two sections of the TADA Act following their arrest in 1994.

``I am of the opinion that the prosecution has been able to prove its case against accused Kutine and John under section five of the act,'' said the Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) D.S. Paweriya.

Acquitting the three other accused of the charge of illegally keeping arms and ammunition in their possession, the ASJ said: ``No recovery of arms and ammunition has been effected from accused Anand Dham Singh Pradhan, Ramesh Appu Pujari and Ashok Shanti Lal, nor they have made any confessional statement before the police.''

He went on to observe: ``Under the circumstances, I feel that prosecution has not been able to prove the case against all the five accused under section three of the act.''

According to the police, the accused had come to Delhi to rescue the alleged Dawood hitman, Subhash Thakur, from Tihar Jail. Thakur was to appear in the court on November 29, 1994. He has been convicted by the Supreme Court in a TADA case in which the former union minister, Kalpanath Rai, was acquitted.

Kutine, John, Pradhan, Pujari, Shanti Lal and Ram Chander Pandey were arrested on November 28 from Lodhi Road at around 9:30 p.m. Kutine, John and Pandey disclosed to the police that they had weapons and had come to Delhi to get Thakur released.

A police team was sent to the India International Hotel in Paharganj where it recovered two hand grenades, one loaded AK-47 rifle and one .455 bore revolver loaded with four live cartridges. The team was accompanied by one of the accused, John.

As Pandey has been sent to Bombay in connection with another case, the court has not passed any judgement against him. ``The case against Pandey will be decided later, on his appearance,'' said the ASJ, while directing the prosecution to take steps to ensure his presence in the court.