4 sentenced to life in prison without remission in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar blast case
The court said that the long delay in the trial compromised national interest and paved the way for a less severe punishment
The Supreme Court sentenced four people on Thursday to life in prison without the option of seeking remission for carrying out a deadly bomb blast in south Lajpat Nagar’s Central Market in 1996 in which 13 people were killed and 38 others were injured.
While noting that the death of 13 innocent people in the blast was certainly a “rarest of rare” crime that deserved the death penalty, the court did not agree with the prosecution plea that the convicts be awarded death.The court said that the long delay in the trial compromised national interest and paved the way for a less severe punishment.
A bench of justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol sentenced Mirza Nissar Hussain and Mohammad Ali Bhatt, who were acquitted by the Delhi high court in November 2012, to life in prison and ordered them to surrender immediately. The top court also upheld the life sentences awarded to Mohammad Naushad and Javed Ahmed Khan by the Delhi high court.
“In view of the severity of the offence resulting in deaths of innocent persons and the role played by each accused, all these persons are sentenced to imprisonment for life, without remission, extending to natural life,” the 190-page judgment concluded, holding each of the four people guilty.
Naushad was sentenced to death by the trial court in April 2010, but the high court commuted his sentence to life in prison, and Khan was sentenced to life imprisonment by both the trial court and the high court.
The bomb placed inside a stolen Maruti car exploded May 21, 1996, in one of the most frequented markets in Delhi.
“A prominent market in the heart of the capital city is attacked, and we may point out that it has not been dealt with the required degree of promptitude and attention,” Justice Karol said, writing the judgment for the bench.
Several suspects named as principal conspirators in the crime, including underworld don Ibrahim Abdul Razak Memon alias Tiger Memon, have remained at large to this day.
“The delay (in trial), for whatever reason, whether attributable to the judge in charge or the prosecution, has certainly compromised national interest,” observed the bench, adding, “Expeditious trial of such cases is the need of the hour, especially when it concerns national security and the common man.”
It noted, “In our considered view, the matter ought to have been handled with urgency and sensitivity at all levels...enough vigilance was not displayed by the investigating as well as the judicial authorities” All of this added up to “mitigating circumstances” for the court not to award the death penalty, despite the fact that the case was found to be among the rarest of rare cases, the bench said.
“Based on evaluation of the evidence on record, including Javed Ahmed Khan’s judicial confession, it is clear that all accused persons knew each other and were working together to carry out the Delhi blast in furtherance of an international conspiracy to cause disruption in India,” the court observed.
Despite the fact that the Delhi high court found several gaps in the prosecution case against Hussain and Bhatt, the Supreme Court examined the case and determined that Hussain specifically travelled from Kathmandu to Delhi and knew about shops where various incriminating materials used in the preparation of the bomb were purchased. He even revealed a failed plot to carry out the attack two days before the incident on May 19, when the battery used in the bomb failed, the court said.
Referring to Bhatt’s role, the top court said that he had a greater role to play on the day when the bomb failed to explode. “We cannot ignore that it is his contribution in rectifying the defects along with other co-accused persons as proved through the confessional statement of A9 (Javed) that actually culminated in a ghastly occurrence where people lost their lives,” the bench said.
The court said that it has no doubt that the incident was part of an international conspiracy against India, and the convicts would have carried out further attacks if they were not apprehended by the police.
The Delhi Police registered a case and named 17 accused people, one of whom died and seven of were declared proclaimed offenders who never faced trial. The remaining nine accused were tried under different penal provisions of the law, including murder and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and the Explosive Substances Act. The trial court sentenced three to death, one to life imprisonment, and two to lesser sentences and acquitted the remaining accused.
Nushad and Javed moved the Delhi high court against their acquittal. The court commuted Naushad’s death sentence to life in prison but upheld Javed’s life sentence. Two death row convicts who were later acquitted, Nisar Hussain and Bhatt, will now have to surrender to serve life prison without remission.