Convicts in arms haul case to challenge verdict

MUMBAI: Minutes after the special MCOCA court in Mumbai sentenced 26/11 plotter and LeT operative Abu Jundal and six others to life imprisonment and handed out varied

MUMBAI: Minutes after the special MCOCA court in Mumbai sentenced 26/11 plotter and LeT operative Abu Jundal and six others to life imprisonment and handed out varied sentences to the remaining five convicts for their roles in the 2006 Aurangabad Arms haul case, the defence lawyers reacted saying it was unjust as there was no evidence to link any of the accused directly to the case.

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The prosecution hailed the verdict saying the court’s tough stand against the convicts’ plea for leniency would act as a deterrent.

“In cases such as the present one, the witnesses turn out to be the heroes. Many of the 100 witnesses we had examined in the case had come from villages and had not even received basic school education, but they still deposed fearlessly. Today’s verdict will encourage more people to come forward and support the system,” claimed special public prosecutor Vaibhav Bagade.

Bagade, however, said the state would appeal against the court’s decision to acquit eight of the 22 accused in the case, and would also challenge the quantum of sentence of the five convicts in the case who did not get life terms.

Jundal and the six others sentenced to life, as well as Mohammed Muzaffar Tanvir, and Dr. Mohammed Sharif Shabbir, who had each been sentenced to 14 years rigorous imprisonment, said they would challenge their conviction before the high court.

The three others, Mushtaq Ahmed Mohammed Iashaq, Javed Ahmed Abdul Majid Ansari, and Afzal Khan Nabi Khan, who had been sentenced to eight years, had undergone imprisonment for ten years and two months each, and were thus not required to undergo any additional sentence.

Once the court signs Tuesday’s order, it will be forwarded to all parties as well as the jail authorities.

The police and the jail authorities will then check if these three men face arrest or custody in any other case, and then release them from the Arthur road prison.

As special judge SL Anekar read out one by one, the sentence awarded to each of the convicts, Jundal and the others stood at the back impassively. After the judge finished delivering the verdict, Dr. Shabbir walked up to him, wailing that he be shown mercy.

“I have done nothing. Please show some compassion and reduce my sentence, or my wife will commit suicide. At least deduct the ten years that I have already spent in custody from my sentence,” Shabbir said.

Judge Anekar, however, directed Shabbir to convey his thoughts to his counsel.

Jundal’s lawyer said his client was “very unhappy with the verdict.”

“From the beginning he (Jundal) has maintained that he is not the person the Indian authorities were after. There is no evidence to directly link him to the case and we are waiting for the detailed copy of the judgment to know on what basis has the court convicted and sentenced him. There is no evidence behind the prosecution’s claim that Jundal was one of the key conspirators in the case. We will raise all of this in our appeal,” said Jundal’s counsel, advocate Asif Naqvi.

All the convicts have also been fined Rs20,000 each and will have to serve an additional sentence of one year if they fail to pay up.