SC asks Bengal govt to give details

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the West Bengal government to table before it all records related to the American Centre attack case that were a part of the trial court proceedings.

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the West Bengal government to table before it all records related to the American Centre attack case that were a part of the trial court proceedings.

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It also stayed the death sentence of two convicts, Aftab Ahmed Ansari and Jamiluddin Nasir, who have challenged their death sentence imposed on them by the trial court that was later upheld by the High Court.

A bench headed by Justice Dalveer Bhandari passed the order after recording an undertaking from the state’s counsel Avijit Bhattarcharjee that the documents would be tabled within eight weeks.

Ansari and Nasir had indiscriminately fired from an AK-47 assault rifle at policemen outside the American Centre on Jawaharlal Nehru Road in Kolkata on January 22, 2002 morning. Six persons died and 14 were injured in the attack.

A division bench of the Calcutta High court had in February 2010 dismissed Ansari and Nasir’s appeal challenging the trial court’s order sentencing them to death.

It had, however, commuted the capital punishment imposed on three others to seven years.

The trial court had in April 2005 held five of eight accused guilty of the attack. The convicts were charged with waging war against the country, conspiracy to carry out the attack, murder and various sections of the Arms Act.