Cuttack, May 26: Nearly 11 years after his arrest over alleged links with terror outfit Al-Qaeda, a court in Cuttack on Tuesday acquitted Abdur Rehman, citing lack of sufficient evidence to prove the charges against him.

The District and Sessions Judge Court in Cuttack delivered the verdict on Tuesday, nearly 11 years after Rehman was arrested in 2015 over his alleged association with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).

Rehman was arrested on December 16, 2015, from the Jagatpur area by a joint team of the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police and the Special Cell of Delhi Police. Investigators had accused him of recruiting members for AQIS and radicalising youths for terror-related activities.

Police had also alleged that Rehman, a resident of Paschimkachha in Cuttack, was operating a madrasa in the Tangi area on the outskirts of the city, where children from economically weaker families in neighbouring Jharkhand were reportedly kept in poor conditions.

During the investigation, officials claimed that Rehman had links with Mohammad Kafeel, who died in the failed 2007 attack attempt at Glasgow Airport. The probe also revealed that Rehman had travelled twice to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in 2015 and had visited Jammu and Kashmir several times.

However, after examining the case, the court found that the prosecution failed to provide sufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations, leading to Rehman’s acquittal.