NIA court awards death penalty to 7 convicts in Ujjain-Bhopal train blast case
Lucknow (PTI): A special NIA court here on Tuesday awarded death penalty to seven alleged ISIS operatives in the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train blast case in which nine people had got seriously injured.
Another accused in the 2017 case was awarded life imprisonment.
Those who were awarded death sentence included convicts Mohd Faisal, Gaus Mohd Khan, Mohd Azhar, Atiq Muzaffer, Mohd Danish, Mohd Sayyed Meer Hussain and Asif Iqbal alias Rokey. Mohd Atif alias Asif Irani was given life imprisonment .
Pronouncing the sentence, Judge V S Tripathi observed that the case fell in the rarest of rare category and as such the convicts were entitled to the severest punishment.
The court had convicted the accused on February 24 and fixed Tuesday for pronouncement of its verdict. It had found the accused guilty under sections 121, 121A, 122, 123 of IPC, sections 17, 18, 18A, 18B, 23, 38 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and 3/25/35 of the Arms Act.
On quantum of sentence, the convicts had pleaded that they had already been in jail for over five years and as such the court must show leniency in awarding sentence to them.
Refuting the plea of convicts, the court said that the convicts waged war against the country and hence they were not entitled to any leniency.
The court sent the case file to the Allahabad High Court of those who have been awarded death penalty for confirmation of the capital sentence as it is the law that the death penalty can be executed only after confirmation by the high court.
According to special public prosecutors M K Singh and K K Sharma, an FIR in the case was registered with ATS police station in Lucknow on March 8, 2017. The ATS had received information that members of banned terror outfit ISIS were planning to conduct blasts at different places in the country.
The ATS' Kanpur unit first arrested Mohd Faisal and later on other accused were nabbed.
The state counsel said that the accused had conducted a test blast at Ganga Ghat in Unnao.
In the probe, it also came out that the accused had planted a bomb on Kanpur-Unnao railway track. They had also planted bombs at different places during Dussehra. The accused wanted to go to Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Mumbai via Pakistan and Afghanistan to commit act of terrorism, according to the probe findings.
The charge sheet was filed in the case on August 31, 2017.
In the charge sheet, one more accused, Saifullah, was named but he was killed in an encounter in Dubagga area of Lucknow.
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Badlapur accused Akshay Shinde shot dead: Lawyer of minor girls calls it 'killing of justice'
Mumbai (PTI): The gunning down of Badlapur case accused Akshay Shinde on Monday was the "killing of justice", said Asim Sarode, lawyer for the two minor girls he allegedly sexually assaulted.
Shinde was killed near Mumbra Bypass around 6:15pm when he allegedly snatched the gun of a policeman while he was being ferried in a police vehicle as part of a probe into a case registered on the complaint of his former wife.
After he shot and injured an API, another personnel from the escort team fired at him, and he was declared dead by doctors at a nearby hospital.
"While representing the two minor girls, I noticed it was becoming uncomfortable for the local politics of the Thane district and even for the educational institution where Akshay Shinde was working. Shinde's death in such a manner is killing of justice," Sarode told a regional news channel.
"Now, the case of sexual assault of the two minor girls will get sidelined. The case of these two minor girls was becoming difficult for the educational institute, as it is affiliated with a certain political family. Such a practice would lower the confidence of people in police and the judiciary," he claimed.
Sarode said he will be filing a plea before the Bombay High Court demanding thorough inquiry into the firing incident.
"Shinde's case could have brought up certain aspects that would have been negative politically for the government. I wonder how Shinde could access the gun and how he could unlock it when his hands were tied. This is political murder and is absolutely wrong," he said.
