NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea of Ashiq Hussain Faktoo, Kashmiri separatist leader and a former member of terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, seeking a review of its verdict awarding life imprisonment to him for killing human rights activist H N Wanchoo.
Faktoo, who is in jail since 1993, is the husband of Asiya Andrabi, also a separatist leader and chairperson of Islamist organisation Dukhtaran-e-Millat.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, which treated the writ petition of Faktoo as a review plea, said the “comprehension” of the accused that the earlier judgement was “erroneous” would not enable the court to “reopen” the entire case.
The bench, also comprising Justices P C Pant and A M Khanwilkar, said the open court hearing of the review petitions is available as a matter of right “only in death sentence cases”. (AGENCIES)