New Delhi: A sessions court in Cuttack has acquitted Mohammad Abdur Raheman Ali Khan, who ran a madrasa in Odisha and who had been accused of links with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and Indian Mujaheedin, over ten years after his arrest. Indian Express has reported that Raheman was arrested on December 16, 2015, by Odisha Police and a special cell of the Delhi Police following intelligence inputs and charged with committing terrorist acts, raising funds for such activities, spreading hatred and disaffection against the government, and recruiting people through his madrasa in Bilteruan village. He was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which places a heavy burden on the accused to secure bail and allows for prolonged detention. The case was initially lodged at Jagatpur police station before being taken up by the Odisha Police’s Crime Branch. A chargesheet was filed only in December 2016, with charges formally framed in September 2017. In 2023, Raheman was convicted by the Patiala house court to seven-and-a-half-years of rigorous imprisonment, which he had already served as an undertrial. The court found nothing to indicate that Raheman had received or raised funds for terrorist groups and activities, met with any notorious terrorists, visited Pakistan, or held membership in a banned organisation. There was “not a single scrap of convincing evidence,” the order read.The New Indian Express has reported that Sessions Judge Manas Ranjan Barik ruled that the prosecution failed to produce convincing evidence linking Raheman to terrorist activities or anti-national acts. During cross-examination, the investigating officer admitted that no evidence was found to show that any student from the madrasa run by the accused had joined terrorist organisations like AQIS or Indian Mujaheedin.The court further observed that the probe did not uncover any instance where the court had encouraged students or members of the community to join terrorism, Times of India reported.“Absolute dearth of any material existed to prove the accused’s involvement in terrorist acts or association with terrorist organisations,” the judge said, while rejecting charges under Sections 16, 20 and 38 of the UAPA.Critics of the UAPA have long argued the law is routinely used to detain first and prosecute weakly, and this case will likely be cited in that ongoing debate. This is, unfortunately, not an anomaly but an addition to a pre-existing pattern. Indian courts have repeatedly seen individuals under trial spend years, sometimes even longer than the maximum sentence for the alleged offence, in custody before acquittal. The combination of stringent bail conditions under special laws like UAPA and overburdened courts (along with generally slow trials) means the detention itself often becomes the de facto punishment, regardless of eventual guilt or innocence. This article previously mentioned that Abdur Raheman Ali Khan was arrested on December 17, 2012, this has been corrected and republished at 6.22 pm on May 29, 2026.