JOIN USDeath for 3 in Delhi blast case
“Three convicts (Mohammed Naushad, Mohammed Ali Bhatt and Mirza Nissar Hussain) are being awarded the death penalty, which is subject to confirmation from the high court,” District and Sessions Judge S P Garg said.
Garg said their complicity in the grave offence warranted imposition of the extreme penalty as they were responsible for the killing of 13 innocent people.
The court also awarded rigorous life imprisonment to another convict Javed Ahmed Khan who was found guilty of serious offences of murder, conspiracy and attempt to murder under the IPC.
On April 8, Garg had held six out of 10 suspected members of banned terror outfit guilty for their varying roles in the blast.Out of the ten accused, the other convicts –– Javed, Farooq Ahmed Khan and Farida Dar–– were given different jail terms.
Farooq and Farida, who were held guilty under milder penal provisions, were allowed to walk free as the court said the imprisonment served during the trial was their punishment.
The remaining four –– Mirza Iftikhar, Latif Ahmed Waza, Syed Maqbool Shah, and Abdul Gani –– were acquitted of all the charges for want of sufficient evidence.
A stolen Maruti car, laden with explosives went off around 6:30 pm on May 21, 1996 in the crowded central market at Lajpat Nagar in south Delhi, killing 13 persons and injuring 38 others. All the accused persons, hailing from Jammu and Kashmir, were arrested soon after the incident when the police traced the phone calls they made to various media houses claiming responsibility for the attack.
Meanwhile, the family of Mirza Nissar Hussain has decided to file an appeal in the high court against the sessions court verdict.
Nissar’s third brother, Mirza Zaffar Hussain, a private school teacher in Srinagar, claimed that the former is innocent.
Talking to Deccan Herald, he said: “Both my brothers, Nissar and Iftikhar are innocent. While Iftikhar was acquitted by the court, Nissar was sentenced to death. We will move to the Delhi High Court and file an appeal there. We are hopeful of getting justice.”
According to Zaffar, Nissar studied up to 9th standard and then moved to Delhi to sell shawls.
“After the Lajpat Nagar blast, Nissar was arrested from Nepal, where he had gone for some business work. He was 16-year-old at that time. Iftikhar was arrested from Delhi,” he said.
The family of Ali Mohammad Bhat, a Kashmiri who was also awarded death sentence, is also likely to file a similar appeal in the Delhi High Court.
Meanwhile, both factions of the Hurriyat Conference have called for a general strike on Friday against the Delhi court verdict.