14 yrs later, 6 convicted for blast in Central Mkt

[Fighter488]

14 yrs later, 6 convicted for blast in Central Mkt​

In The First Blast Case To Reach Conclusion In Delhi, Four Accused Let Off For Lack of Evidence; Sentencing on April 13


Smriti Singh | TNN



New Delhi: In the first blast case to be decided ever in the capital, a sessions court on Thursday convicted six out of 10 suspected militants of Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front (JKIF) in the 14-yearold Lajpat Nagar explosion that killed 13 people and injured 38. A stolen Maruti car laden with explosives had wreaked havoc in a crowded Central Market around 6:30 pm on May 21, 1996.

District and sessions judge S P Garg held six members of JKIF — Mohammad Naushad, Mohammad Ali Bhatt, Mirza Nissar Hussain, Javed Ahmed Khan, Farooq Ahmed Khan and their lone woman associate, Farida Dar — guilty of different roles in the case. The remaining four — Mirza Iftikhar Hussain, Latif Ahmed Waza, Syed Maqbool Shah, and Abdul Gani — were acquitted of all the charges for want of sufficient evidence.
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LAW CATCHES UP[/B]: Farooq Ahmed Khan (left) and Farida Dar have been convicted under Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act


While Farooq Ahmed Khan and Farida Dar have been held guilty for minor offences under the Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act, which carries a maximum punishment of 14 years, the four others convicted face a maximum punishment of death penalty as they have been convicted for serious offences of murder, conspiracy and attempt to murder under the IPC. The court fixed hearing of arguments on the quantum of sentence for April 13. All the accused, except for the woman, have already been in jail for 14 years as undertrials.

This is also the first case in which the involvement of the underworld was found with Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon named as accused in the case. In fact, the failure of the cops to arrest six other accused, including Ibrahim and Memon, finds a mention in the 297-page judgement. ‘‘No efforts were made during the past 14 years to apprehend the co-accused who were later declared proclaimed offender,’’ the court said.

While the court pointed out glaring loopholes in the police investigations leading to acquittal of some of the accused, it relied heavily on the confessional statement of convict Javed Ahmed Khan which was ‘‘voluntarily’’ recorded before the additional chief judicial magistrate of Jaipur on July 19, 1996, in which he had admitted his and others’ role in carrying out the blast. Though under the law, a confessional statement is not entirely relied upon to prove the case, the court said ‘‘it may rely thereupon if it is voluntarily given’’.

‘‘It may also form the basis of conviction whereof the court may only have to satisfy itself in regard to voluntariness and truthfulness and in given cases some corroboration...a confession which is not retraced even at a later stage of the trial and is even accepted by the accused in the examination under section 313 of CrPC can be fully relied upon,’’ the court said.

Citing the apex court’s ruling in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the court further said, ‘‘Confessions are considered as highly reliable because no rational person would make a false statement against his interest unless prompted by his conscience to tell the truth.’’

The alleged key accused and spokesperson of JKIF, Farooq Ahmed Khan, who according to the police had made calls to various media houses to claim responsibility for the attack, and his relative, Farida Dar, were absolved of the serious charge of conspiracy.

‘‘No efforts were made by the investigating agency (to ascertain) as to whom the telephone number mentioned in the call details belonged...IO did not even bother to verify the telephone numbers mentioned in the call details pertaining to various news agencies,’’ the order said.

The judge said the police failed to prove that they were in touch with other convicts prior to and after the blast. ‘‘A number of telephone calls were made between Farooq and Farida. However, that itself is not enough to infer conspiracy between them and other co-accused,’’ the judge observed.

The court, however, said it did point a finger of ‘‘suspicion’’ at them. ‘‘Had the prosecution been vigilant and obtained impeccable documentary evidence on record regarding telephone calls made from the telephone installed at the residence of Farooq ...it would have been able to bring him to book,’’ it said. Recovery of explosives from the house of the accused, the court added, could not lead to the conclusion that it was to be used in the blast.

For the conviction, the court held that the theft of a Maruti car, changing of its number and purchase of a gas cylinder and a wall clock for executing the blast have been established by the prosecution. These facts coupled with the ‘‘unrebutted’’ confessional statement of convict Javed Ahmed Khan proved the case beyond reasonable doubt, it said.


TOI Feed dated 9th April, 2010.

 

[Fighter488]

Police get flak for loopholes in investigation



Smriti Singh | TNN



New Delhi: Announcing verdict in the Lajpat Nagar blast case, the court in its 297-page judgment not only termed police probe ‘‘highly defective’’ but also gave detailed notes on lapses in investigation.

For the investigating team, which is probing three blast cases in the capital, it was major blow when the court expressed its displeasure saying ‘‘no worthwhile evidence was collected by the police against the accused’’.

The prosecution reportedly faced a setback due to ‘‘noncooperation’’ from the investigating agency. ‘‘During the final arguments, special public prosecutor expressed his inability to address arguments in detail due to non-cooperation from the investigating officer,’’ said district and sessions judge S P Garg. Pointing out lapses in the investigation, the court blamed cops for neither taking the accused for TIP nor recording their statement before the magistrate. This, the court noted, greatly weakened the case against the accused.

The police, which based its case on the disclosure statement of the accused, even failed to substantiate information collected from the confession by independent witnesses. ‘‘Antecedents of none of the accused was collected by the police during investigations,’’ the judge said. He added the agency failed to collect the relevant call records of the accused on which the prosecution was relying.

Conduct of the then ACP PP Singh, who was in charge of the investigation, also came under intense scrutiny after the court said he ‘‘did not bother to appear as a witness before the court’’.

‘‘Only when an application was moved by the prosecution during final arguments, he opted to appear as prosecution witness,’’ the court noted.

Appreciating efforts made by special prosecutor S K Dass to build a case against the accused, the court said, ‘‘it is well settled that the case on a whole can’t be thrown away due to remissness of the investigating officer... Hence, this aspect does not cause a dent in the case.”

 

[Fighter488]

Our whole judicial system is really SCREWED-UP.
Fighter

‘Verdict after 14 years has no meaning’ ​

Victims Say They Weren’t Interested In The Long-Drawn Trial


TIMES NEWS NETWORK



New Delhi: ‘‘Justice has no meaning if it takes 14 years.’’ This is how 44-year-old Pinki Sood, who lost her husband in Central Market blasts, described a trial court verdict on Thursday.

She said Thursday was just like any other normal day for her, keeping her busy with the responsibilities that fell on her shoulders after the death of her husband who was in his shop when the blast hit the market. ‘‘I saw the news on television. Justice after 14 years has very little significance. We have been through a very bad phase. My children were very small and after my husband’s death, we had no means of income,’’ said Pinki, who runs her husband’s shop, R K Sood Art Frames, in Central Market. The blast took place in a car parked right in front of the shop and the impact was such that the shop was up in flames within minutes.

‘‘I was calling my husband but there was no response. And the next moment, I got a call from my husband’s friend who told me about the blast. We reached the spot, but the police didn’t let us go near the shop. They told us that the injured had been taken to nearby hospitals,’’ Pinki said as she recalled that traumatic evening. ‘‘That entire night we went from one hospital to the other looking for my husband, but couldn’t find him. Next morning at 11, we got a call from police informing us about his death.’’

Pinki said she never went to attend any hearing of the case. ‘‘I’m not interested. I had big responsibilities to take care of. The trial had no meaning for me,’’ she said.

Ram Avtar, who has a garment shop next to Sood’s shop, too remembers that evening clearly. Like Pinki, he too was not interested in the verdict. ‘‘We didn’t get any compensation. We suffered huge loss, but government never offered any help. What happens in court is not my concern... The trial court has taken 14 years to do justice and I’m sure the matter will now go to high court and Supreme Court,’’ said Avtar.

In 1996, Central Market was targeted for the first time by terrorists and almost all old shop owners remember the incident. ‘‘When I first heard the blast, I thought it was a bursting tyre. When I went outside, I saw a car and fire in nearby shops. Injured were lying on the ground. We rushed to help them,’’ recalled Sudhir Mallik, who has a stationary shop in Central Market.

 

[Fighter488]

Court relied on lone witness



Smriti Singh | TNN



New Delhi: Even as the prosecution was grappling to tie the loose ends in the Central Market blast case with circumstantial evidence, one man sealed the fate of the accused when he identified them before the court.

It was the testimony of Sumit Verma, a shop owner at Lajpat Nagar, that helped in nailing the accused. The prosecution, which relied on the disclosure statement of the accused and evidence collected by the police, produced Verma as its witness to support the case after he claimed to have seen the accused on that fateful day.

According to police, the accused had planned the attack for May 18, 1996, by planting a bomb in a stolen Maruti. But they found some fault in the bomb and took a couple of days to fix it. They carried out the attack on May 21. While nobody seemed to notice any suspicious activity, Verma reportedly had gotten into a fight with two accused a few days before May 21 when they were trying to park the Maruti car in the market.

Describing the sequence of events, Verma told the court that 3-4 persons had parked a Maruti car in front of his shop on May 18, 2005 despite his objection. After a quarrel, they agreed to move their car and parked it four shops away. Even on the night of May 19, he noticed the parked car. When the blast took place, he contacted the police.

In court, Verma identified Mirza Nisar Hussain and Mohammad Ali Bhat. Relying on the witness’s statement, the court said, ‘‘Statement of Sumit Verma confirms the facts disclosed by accused Mirza Nisar Hussain in disclosure statement’’. Clearing all doubts about his testimony, the court said that since a quarrel had taken place between then, Verma had ample opportunity to see the faces of these persons.

Nisar had given a similar description of the sequence of events in his disclosure statement. ‘‘Role of Nisar in the incident fully establishes conspiracy hatched by him along with his associates to cause a bomb blast. Not only he was aware of the conspiracy, he was instrumental in executing the plan,’’ the court said, adding that convict Bhat’s role was ‘‘akin’’ to that of Nisar on most occasions.





TIME MOVES ON: The park in Central Market, Lajpat Nagar, in the vicinity of which the blast took place on May 1996, is being given a facelift. According to police, the attackers had planned the blast for May 18, 1996, by planting a bomb in a stolen Maruti car. But the bomb developed a snag and it took a couple of days for them to fix it. They finally carried out the attack on May 21

 

[ek_indian]

Someone has said "Justice delayed is justice denied"...

I agree with fighter, our judiciary is not of any good use to society.

 

[Fighter488]

FREE AT LAST

Four accused now acquitted spent 14 years in prison​

TIMES NEWS NETWORK



New Delhi: Even as four suspected militants of Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front (JKIF) were acquitted on Thursday by a sessions court in the Lajpat Nagar blast case of 1996, their happiness over finally tasting freedom was overshadowed by the fact that they have already served 14 years in jail as undertrials.

As district and sessions judge S P Garg pronounced the verdict in a packed courtroom, 10 anxious accused waited with bated breath for the judgment. Smiles broke on the faces of Mirza Iftikhar, Latif Ahmed Waza, Syed Maqbool Shah and Abdul Gani after the court absolved them of all the charges. However, all the acquitted persons, after the judgment was delivered, seemed exhausted. ‘‘I am just waiting to return to my home,’’ said Waza while being taken away by the police. According to the counsel of the accused, Khalid Ansari, the acquitted will be released on Thursday night or Friday morning. Since two of the acquitted are in Loni jail and two in Tihar, completing the formalities may take some time, he added. He added that their families will hopefully be in Delhi in the next couple of days.

Commenting on the court’s verdict, Ansari said, ‘‘All the accused should have been acquitted as the police did not have a strong case against them. However, we still have an option of challenging the conviction in the high court.’’

It was also a moment of joy for the lone woman accused, Farida Dar, when the court acquitted her of the charges of murder and criminal conspiracy. She has been held guilty for minor offences under the Explosive Substances Act and the Arms Act and has already served five years in jail. ‘‘Inshaallah, God has been kind to me and justice has been done. I am happy with the outcome,’’ she said. Her counsel, Aman Lekhi, however, was not satisfied with her conviction under Explosives Substances Act and said that there was not enough evidence against her. ‘‘We will plead before the court that she may be let off as she was in prison for five years,’’ he added.

 

[Vinashi_JagjitSinghArora]

Terrorist have to be put to death not Jailed!