Allahabad High Court will hear a plea by Sambhal Jama Masjid committee chairman Zafar Ali challenging the police charge sheet in the November 2024 violence case.

Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a petition filed by Zafar Ali, chairman of the Sambhal Jama Masjid committee, challenging the police charge sheet in the November 2024 Sambhal violence case. The plea will come up before a single bench of Justice Sameer Jain.

Zafar Ali, who was arrested after his name appeared in the investigation, had earlier secured bail from the High Court on July 24. He has sought the quashing of the charge sheet filed in the trial court.

The hearing comes after the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) submitted a voluminous charge sheet spanning over 4,400 pages across six cases linked to the clashes, which claimed five lives and left many injured.

Investigators have identified Shariq Satha as the alleged mastermind. A resident of Sambhal, Satha reportedly ran a massive car theft racket involving more than 300 stolen vehicles from Delhi-NCR, with links to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Pakistan’s ISI. Police say he fled India on a forged passport.

The SIT also uncovered suspicious financial transactions tied to Sambhal residents and found foreign-made cartridges at the violence sites. According to the charge sheet, Satha’s aides fired shots that killed four people, though the fifth death remains without an FIR, raising unanswered questions.

Prominent political names also figure in the case, including Samajwadi Party MP Ziaur Rahman Barq and the son of local MLA Iqbal Mahmood. In total, 37 people have been specifically named, while nearly 3,750 remain unnamed in connection with the riots.