'Give me life term, I want my kids to know I'm alive'

MUMBAI: "I don't belong here," said Feroz Khan on Tuesday before completely choking up and pleading against being granted the death sentence. "I don't want death. Give me a life sentence. Don't give me any furlough or parole leaves from jail, but just not death. I want my children to know that I am alive," said the 50-year old convicted for conspiring to cause the March 12, 1993, Mumbai serial blasts.

Appearing before special Tada judge G A Sanap, Feroz's advocate Wahab Khancalled on the convict to present evidence to prove mitigating circumstances in order to soften the sentence. Special public prosecutor Deepak Salvi, the CBI's advocate, had said on Monday that he would seek the "extreme possible sentence" for all the accused.

Salvi is likely to cross examine Feroz on Wednesday .The court has issued summonses to two others whom Feroz has sought as his witnesses. They are Gautam Sore, a murder convict, and Vikrant Deshmukh, an undertrial, housed in Taloja prison, with him. Their testi mony is meant to demonstrate mitigating circumstances in Feroz's favour.

A Class XII pass who did not get to graduate, Feroz presented certificates of courses he completed while in jail on human rights, Arabic and on M K Gandhi.

He said that at the time of his arrest, he was 40 years old and had a daughter and a son who are now 11 and nine years old respectively . "My children know that I exist somewhere and that one day their father will come back to them." Feroz said he had submitted an application to court for turning approver with "remorse and repentance".

He also said, "I did not participate in the destruction of weapons". In either case, Feroz gave the names of all those who attended the respective meetings.