Gujarat HC upholds death sentence for Akshardham attackers

NEW DELHI: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday upheld the Prevention of Terrorism Act ( POTA) court’s verdict awarding the death sentence to three accused in the September 2002 Akashardham terror attack. Thirty-two persons were killed in the attack.

The POTA court had convicted six persons for providing logistic support to the two terrorists — Murtuza Hafiz Yasin and Ashraf Ali Mohammed Farooq — who stormed the temple premises. Three of the convicted, Shan Miya alias Chand Khan, Adam Ajmeri and Mufti Abdul Qayyum Mansuri, were awarded death sentence. While Mohammed Salim Shaikh was awarded life sentence, Abdul Miyan Qadri and Altaf Hussain were sentenced to 10 and five years imprisonment, respectively.

In an in-camera proceeding, a division bench of justices R M Doshi and K M Thakar while confirming the death sentence of the three convicts and varied prison terms of three others, observed that they did not deserve any leniency.

The court said the convicts were aware of the gravity of the offence they were going to commit and of the result and consequences of their heinous crime. In its judgement, the high court observed that though the convicts had no past criminal records, they indulged in terrorist activities supported by Pakistan-based major terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

After considering confessional statements and other supportive evidence, the court said the accused were involved in waging war against the nation. The court also said the general belief that the terror attack on the temple was to take ‘revenge’ for the 2002 communal riots in the state was not true in case of the convicts. “Their act was not to take revenge but to create terror in the minds of people,” the court observed.

The Akshardham terror attack incident was the first judgment of the designated court under the now-repealed Pota which was confirmed by the high court. The Pota court had delivered the judgment in July 2006, against which some of the convicts appealed to the high court. The high court’s final order rejecting the appeal and confirming the sentences given by the Pota court was also kept reserved for over two years.