Arms haul: Jundal, 6 others get life

MUMBAI: Indian Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Abu Jundal and six others were on Tuesday sentenced by a special court to life in prison for their role in

MUMBAI: Indian Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Abu Jundal and six others were on Tuesday sentenced by a special court to life in prison for their role in the decade-old Aurangabad arms haul case.

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The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court also sentenced two other convicts to 14 years in jail and three others to eight, a week after it convicted 12 of the 22 men accused of bringing in a large consignment of arms, ammunition and explosives to Aurangabad in 2006. Eight of the 22 were acquitted, one is facing a separate trial and another is on the run.

Jundal and six others — Mohd Amir Shaikh, Billal Ahmed, Afroz Khan, Faisal Shaikh, Aslam Kashmiri and Sayyed Aaqif — sentenced to life were found guilty under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act .

The others were sentenced under the Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act, and criminal conspiracy under the IPC.

Judge SL Anekar, rejecting the convicts’ plea for leniency, said considering the “gravity of the offence,” and the convicts’ “lack of remorse”, the court concluded they deserved no compassion.

“The UAPA was amended in 2004 for the crucial purpose of combating terrorism. Considering the potential effect of the offence in question on the common man, irrespective of his religion or beliefs, those convicted under the UAPA deserve the maximum punishment of rigorous imprisonment for life. Showing any leniency to the convicts would result in allowing society to suffer,” Anekar said.

The two convicts sentenced to 14 years in jail are Mohammed Muzaffar Tanvir and Dr Mohammed Sharif Shabbir. Three others, Mushtaq Ahmed Mohammed Iashaq, Javed Ahmed Abdul Majid Ansari, and Afzal Khan Nabi Khan, who were sentenced to eight years, have already undergone the sentence as undertrials and will not be required to serve any additional sentence.

The court observed that these three men had “mainly acted upon the directions of Dr Shabbir, who held a dominating position among them and sending them to jail again would not serve any purpose”.

While convicting them last week, Anekar observed the convicts had brought in arms and ammunition to carry out a “larger conspiracy of assassinating Prime Minister Narendra Modi and VHP leader Praveen Togadia”.

He accepted the prosecution’s claim that Mohammad Amir Shakil and Abu Jundal were key conspirators in the case.

Jundal is also an accused in the 2006 Ahmedabad railway station blast and a co-accused in the 2010 German Bakery blast case in Pune. He was deported to India from Saudi Arabia in 2012 and was arrested in August 2013.