The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the release of a man from Mumbai, incarcerated since 2006 in Kalaburgi jail, after reducing his life imprisonment to the period already served by him in a case related to recovery of a pistol and two hand grenades.
The man was alleged to be a member of banned terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba but the trial court acquitted him from charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
However, it convicted him for the offences of waging war against the country and others and sentenced him to life term. On his appeal, the Karnataka High Court confirmed his conviction only to the offences under the Explosive Substances Act and the Arms Act and upheld his sentence to life imprisonment.
On Tuesday, acting on his appeal, a bench presided over by L Nageswara Rao directed for release of convict Abdul Reheman alias Shami Ahmed after reducing his sentence to the period already undergone by him.
The top court passed its order after hearing arguments of senior advocate Siddharth Dave and Farrukh Rasheed on behalf of the convict on the point of the sentence.
Reheman was arrested on March 30, 2006, after he alighted from Chennai-Mumbai train at Gulbarga Railway station. He was found in possession of one pistol, two hand grenades, and books in Urdu and audio and video cassettes. Subsequently, he was made to undergo brain mapping and narco-analysis tests but the court found that there was no evidence produced to suggest that he was a member of a terrorist organisation.
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(Published 07 September 2021, 12:26 IST)
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