New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday sentenced a
Bangladeshi national and his Kashmiri associate belonging to
banned militant organisation Harkat-Ul-Jihad-al-Islami(HuJI)
to life imprisonment for possessing explosives and waging war
against the country.
Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma sentenced
Md Amin Wani, a Jammu and Kashmir resident, and Lutfur Rahman,
the Bangladeshi national who is alleged to have received
training at the instance of Pakistan-based Jamaat-Ud Dawa
chief Hafiz Saeed to life imprisonment and said they did not
deserve capital punishment as the case was not the rarest of
rare.
"Keeping in view the unlawful and illegal activities
of the convicts, a substantive and stern sentence is required
to be imposed upon the convicts so that it is not only in the
commensuration with the gravity of crime but also serves as an
example for others who might also venture on the same
forbidden path," the ASJ said.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 7.5 lakh on Rahman
and Rs seven lakh on Wani.
Declining the plea for leniency, the court said "the
convicts do not deserve any leniency except that their life be
not taken away lawfully."
Rejecting the plea of police for death penalty, the court
said the offence did not fall in rarest of the rare category.
Both of them were convicted on February 16 for possessing
explosives and hawala money in 2007 under the IPC, the
Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Explosive
Substances Act.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 17:39