New Delhi, Jan 12
Terrorist Mohammed Afzal Guru, condemned to death for his role in
the Dec 13, 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament, Friday
exhausted his last avenue of legal reprieve with the Supreme Court
dismissing his renewed appeal for mercy and upholding his death
punishment.
Mohammed Afzal's fresh appeal was dismissed by a four-judge bench
comprising Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Chief Justice-designate K.G.
Balakrishnan and Justices B.N. Aggarwal and P.P. Naolekar.
Despite confirmation of his death sentence on Aug 4 last year by the
apex court, Afzal had approached the Supreme Court yet again through
a 'curative petition' on the ground that he had no access to an able
lawyer in the earlier round of the adjudication of his case.
Afzal had approached the court along with another convict Shaukat
Hussain, who faces 10 years' jail term for the strike in which nine
security personnel and the five attackers were killed and at least
22 injured. The Supreme Court upheld his sentence as well.
This time around senior advocate Kamini Jaiswal represented Afzal in
the court.
In his appeal, Afzal had pleaded that he was denied a fair trial in
the sessions court, which had failed in following the statutory
procedure prescribed for providing an effective legal aide to the
litigant unable to defend himself.
He had contended that he was denied an able counsel of his choice
and counsel appointed to defend him did not command his confidence.
Through his curative petition, Afzal had also challenged the apex
court's Aug 4 verdict confirming the death sentence awarded to him
by the trial court and endorsed by the Delhi High Court Oct 29,
2003.
He had contended that the Aug 4 verdict of the apex court was in
violation of his fundamental rights, granted by the Constitution, as
the apex court had departed from the norms laid down by it regarding
access to a competent legal representative to an accused.
But the court dismissed all his contentions and put its seal yet
again on Afzal's death sentence.
While confirming Afzal's death sentence Aug 4, a bench comprising
judges P.V. Reddy and P.P. Naolekar had described the parliament
attack case as "one of the rarest of rare cases warranting
imposition of capital punishment". The bench had also observed that
the parliament attack had shaken the unity, sovereignty and
integrity of the nation.
"The elected representatives and constitutional authorities were
attacked with explosives and the entire country came to a standstill
by this diabolical incident," the judges had said.
While sentencing Shaukat Hussain to 10 years in jail, the two-judges
bench had said that though there was no evidence to link him to the
actual conspiracy in the attack, he was aware of his cousin Afzal's
involvement in the conspiracy as well as the entire plan and design
of the attack.
By suppressing and not informing the police or magistrate about the
conspiracy, he has waged a war against the nation for which he
deserves to suffer imprisonment for 10 years, the bench noted.
After confirmation of his death sentence by the apex court last Aug,
Afzal's wife and mother had knocked at the Rashtrapati Bhawan's door
for presidential pardon to him.
Afzal's last hope lies in President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
(c) Boloji.com :
1999–2008 : All
Rights Reserved Boloji.com is owned and managed by Boloji Media Inc Privacy Policy |
Disclaimer
No part of this Internet site may
be reproduced without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
