NEW DELHI, May 21: The Supreme Court today commuted the death sentence of two convicts in the 2002 American Center attack case in Kolkata, ordering that the mastermind will remain behind bars till death while the other will spend at least 30 years in jail without remission.
Describing the terror attack as “devilish, diabolic, horrendous, vicious” impinging on the sovereign authority of the country, a bench of justices A K Patnaik and F M Ibrahim Khalifulla upheld the conviction of the mastermind Aftab Ahmad Ansari and Jamiluddin Nasir.
It said death is not warranted in the case “though it calls for other deterrent punishment”.
“Appellant Aftab deserves to be imprisoned for the entirety of his life while in the case of appellant Nasir he can be imposed with a life imprisonment for a minimum period of 30 years,” Justice Khalifulla, who wrote the judgement, said adding “the role of Nasir was always a shade lesser than what can be attributed to Aftab”.
Referring to various verdicts of the apex court including in Red Fort, Parliament and Mumbai terror attack cases, the bench said facts of those cases were different from the present case and cannot be used for the purpose of deciding the sentence to be imposed on the accused.
“Therefore, even while holding that the charges found proved against the appellant are of grave in nature, when it comes to the question of sentence we wish to hold that the imposition of death penalty is not warranted in the facts and circumstances of the case though it calls for other deterrent punishment,” it said.
“In the ultimate analysis, the act of the accused/ assailants was not a mere desperate act of a small group, but was an act of higher magnitude with a clear object and determination to impinge on the sovereign authority of the nation and its Government,” it said.
Two motorcycle-borne men had indiscriminately fired with an AK-47 assault rifle at policemen outside the American Center on Jawaharlal Nehru Road on January 22, 2002 killing five police personnel and injuring 13 police personnel and other civilians.
According to the prosecution, as many as 17 accused were involved in the offence, out of which only nine faced trial and from the remaining eight, there were six absconders out of whom one is now facing trial and the remaining five remain untraced. Two of the offenders, namely, Zahid and Salim died in an encounter on January 27, 2002, at Hazaribagh in Jharkhand.
After going through the evidences, the apex court said the attack demonstrated the diabolic mindset of all the conspirators and a war like situation was created, though no pomp and pageantry associated with war was not present.
“Though the chosen assailants by the conspirators were only two in number, the vengeance with which they indulged in the attack at the spot (viz) the American Centre towards the police force and the extent of damage they caused demonstrated the diabolic mindset of all the conspirators in committing the crime,” it said.
The court passed the order on appeals filed by Aftab and Nasir challenging the Calcutta High Court order which had confirmed death sentence awarded to them by trial court.
The apex court had in 2010 stayed the death sentence awarded to them.
A division bench of the Calcutta High Court had in February 2010 upheld the death sentence of Aftab along with Nasir but commuted the capital punishment awarded to three others to seven years imprisonment.
The sessions court in April 2005 had sentenced Aftab, Nasir and three others to death while acquitting two others.
Just four days after the attack, two persons — Salim and Zahid — were injured in an encounter with a Delhi Police team in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand and they subsequently died. The police had come to know about the involvement of Aftab in the American Center attack from their dying declarations.
Aftab was arrested from Dubai thereafter and was deported to India on February 9, 2002 to face trial. He was part of terror outfit Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF) that reportedly had links with Harkat-ul-Jehadi-e-Islam. (PTI)
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