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Technicality gives Red Fort attacker sixth shot at life - Times of India
NEW DELHI: More than 15 years after the terror attack on Red Fort left three Army jawans dead, Pakistani national Mohd Arif aka Ashfaq, awarded death penalty upon conviction in the case, got the sixth opportunity from the Supreme Court to prove his innocence.
Arif was convicted under Sections 121 and 121A (waging war against India) as well as 302 (murder) of Indian Penal Code for being the master conspirator of the terror strike on Red Fort on December 22, 2000.
The trial court's decision to impose death penalty was confirmed by the Delhi high court. The SC too upheld the HC order. Arif remained unsuccessful in the next two rounds — review and curative petitions — as the SC dismissed both.
His counsel, senior advocate R Vasanta and advocate Gopal Shankarnarayanan, clung to a small technical glitch and made an emotional pitch to persuade a bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices J S Khehar, J Chelameswar, A K Sikri and RF Nariman to give Arif one more opportunity by filing a review petition that would be heard in open court.
Arif's earlier review and curative petitions were dismissed in chamber. However, a few months after dismissal of his curative petition, a constitution bench by 4-1 majority ruled that all review petitions involving death penalty would be mandatorily heard in open court by a three-judge bench. This would apply to all death row cases where review petitions have been dismissed and curative petitions were pending and for all future review petitions, the SC had said. Arif could not avail this concession as his curative petition too was dismissed.
Vasanta said the technical disqualification of the Pakistani's review petition being heard in open court was heart rending as several important factors were not placed before the court during the arguments on the main appeal against the HC judgment.
Additionally, the Centre for Death Penalty in National Law University, Delhi certified that Arif would be the lone death row convict in India who would be deprived of an open court hearing on his review petition because of the technical glitch.
This persuaded the bench headed by the CJI to give Arif another chance. It told his counsel to file a fresh review petition within a month which would be heard in open court giving Arif another opportunity to try and escape capital punishment.
There is a small irony. Arif's petition challenging the HC's decision to uphold death penalty awarded by the trial court was dismissed on August 10, 2011 by an SC bench of Justices V S Sirpurkar and T S Thakur. The latter is now the CJI and headed the bench which accorded the condemned prisoner a fresh opportunity.
The SC's 2011 judgment had said, "An attack on a symbol like Red Fort was an assault on the nation's will and resolve to preserve its integrity and sovereignty at all costs. It was a challenge not only to the Army battalions stationed inside the monument but the entire nation. It was a challenge to the very fabric of a secular constitutional democracy this country has adopted and every thing that is good and dear to our countrymen. It was a blatant, brazen-faced and audacious act aimed to overawe the government of India.
"A conspiracy to attack the Indian Army unit stationed in Red Fort and the consequent unprovoked attack cannot be described excepting as waging war against India and there can be no question of compromising on this issue. We, therefore, have no doubts that death sentence is the only sentence in the peculiar circumstance of this case.
"This was not only an attack on Red Fort or the Army stationed therein, this was an arrogant assault on the self-respect of this great nation. It was a well thought out insult offered to question the sovereignty of this great nation by foreign nationals. Therefore, this case becomes a rarest of rare case."
NEW DELHI: More than 15 years after the terror attack on Red Fort left three Army jawans dead, Pakistani national Mohd Arif aka Ashfaq, awarded death penalty upon conviction in the case, got the sixth opportunity from the Supreme Court to prove his innocence.
Arif was convicted under Sections 121 and 121A (waging war against India) as well as 302 (murder) of Indian Penal Code for being the master conspirator of the terror strike on Red Fort on December 22, 2000.
The trial court's decision to impose death penalty was confirmed by the Delhi high court. The SC too upheld the HC order. Arif remained unsuccessful in the next two rounds — review and curative petitions — as the SC dismissed both.
His counsel, senior advocate R Vasanta and advocate Gopal Shankarnarayanan, clung to a small technical glitch and made an emotional pitch to persuade a bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices J S Khehar, J Chelameswar, A K Sikri and RF Nariman to give Arif one more opportunity by filing a review petition that would be heard in open court.
Arif's earlier review and curative petitions were dismissed in chamber. However, a few months after dismissal of his curative petition, a constitution bench by 4-1 majority ruled that all review petitions involving death penalty would be mandatorily heard in open court by a three-judge bench. This would apply to all death row cases where review petitions have been dismissed and curative petitions were pending and for all future review petitions, the SC had said. Arif could not avail this concession as his curative petition too was dismissed.
Vasanta said the technical disqualification of the Pakistani's review petition being heard in open court was heart rending as several important factors were not placed before the court during the arguments on the main appeal against the HC judgment.
Additionally, the Centre for Death Penalty in National Law University, Delhi certified that Arif would be the lone death row convict in India who would be deprived of an open court hearing on his review petition because of the technical glitch.
This persuaded the bench headed by the CJI to give Arif another chance. It told his counsel to file a fresh review petition within a month which would be heard in open court giving Arif another opportunity to try and escape capital punishment.
There is a small irony. Arif's petition challenging the HC's decision to uphold death penalty awarded by the trial court was dismissed on August 10, 2011 by an SC bench of Justices V S Sirpurkar and T S Thakur. The latter is now the CJI and headed the bench which accorded the condemned prisoner a fresh opportunity.
The SC's 2011 judgment had said, "An attack on a symbol like Red Fort was an assault on the nation's will and resolve to preserve its integrity and sovereignty at all costs. It was a challenge not only to the Army battalions stationed inside the monument but the entire nation. It was a challenge to the very fabric of a secular constitutional democracy this country has adopted and every thing that is good and dear to our countrymen. It was a blatant, brazen-faced and audacious act aimed to overawe the government of India.
"A conspiracy to attack the Indian Army unit stationed in Red Fort and the consequent unprovoked attack cannot be described excepting as waging war against India and there can be no question of compromising on this issue. We, therefore, have no doubts that death sentence is the only sentence in the peculiar circumstance of this case.
"This was not only an attack on Red Fort or the Army stationed therein, this was an arrogant assault on the self-respect of this great nation. It was a well thought out insult offered to question the sovereignty of this great nation by foreign nationals. Therefore, this case becomes a rarest of rare case."
