Akshardham case: Gujarat HC upholds death sentence to three

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court today upheld the POTA court verdict awarding death sentence to three convicts for the 2002 Akashardham terror attack, which claimed 32 lives.

The division bench of Justices R M Doshit and K M Thakar, while pronouncing the judgement, rejected the appeal of six convicts against the POTA court verdict.

Three persons, Adam Ajmeri, Shan Miya alias Chand Khan from Bareilly and Mufti Abdul Qyyum Mansuri were awarded death sentence by POTA court in July 2006.

The other three acussed in the case were sentenced to various prison terms. While a local youth from Dariapur in the city, Mohammed Salim Shaikh was sentenced to life imprisonment, Abdulmiyan Qadri was given a 10-year term and Altaf Hussain was sentenced to imprisonment for five years.

Two militants, identified as Murtuza Hafiz Yasin and Ashraf Ali Mohammed Farooq, and having links with Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba were killed by NSG commandoes during the attack on the temple in Gandhinagar on September 24, 2002.

The attackers using automatic weapons and hand grenades had killed 32 people, including 28 temple visitors, three commandos, including one from NSG, and a constable of the State Reserve Police (SRP).

The judgement was pronounced in-camera and only the prosecution and the defence counsel were allowed.