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Three get death in Parliament attack case

Special Judge S N Dhingra on Wednesday sentenced to death S A R Geelani, Mohammed Afzal and Shaukat Hussain Guru in the Parliament attack case.

The three were convicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, Indian Penal Code and the Explosive Substances Act for waging a war against India by conspiring with the five terrorists who attacked Parliament on December 13, 2001.

Afsan Guru, wife of Shaukat, who was convicted under Section 123 of the Indian Penal Code for concealing the plot, was sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 10,000, in default of which she would have to spend another six months in jail.

There was complete silence in the courtroom as the judge started reading out the operative portions of his 22-page order of sentence at around 1200 IST. All the four accused were present.

"I sentence accused Mohammed Afzal, Shaukat Hussain Guru and S A R Geelani under Section 121 A [of the] Indian Penal Code to life imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs 25,000 each, [and] in [case of] default to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year," he said.

Some were surprised as they expected the judge to give them death penalty. "Has he spared their lives?" they were asking.

But more was in store, as the judge was only going by the order of the sections under which the accused were booked by the special cell of the Delhi police.

"I sentence all these three accused persons under section 121A to RI for 10 years and to pay fine of Rs 10,000 each, and in default to further undergo RI for six months," he said.

In his judgement the judge dwelt in detail on the terrorist attacks in Gujarat and Jammu and noted that the accused persons had drawn inspiration from Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Maulana Masood Azhar.

He said, "The act of the accused persons of hatching a conspiracy for attacking the Parliament House with the intention to kill the prime minister, the home minister and taking hostage the entire legislature cannot be looked upon in isolation.

"Terrorists not only kill innocent persons, but the spectra of terror also paralyses the social and economic fabric of the society. The attack on parliament sent tremors throughout the country.

"I award death sentence to the above three accused persons under Section 3(2) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act for committing terrorist acts resulting in the death of nine persons... also pay fine of Rs 500,000 each, out of which Rs 50,000 each will be paid to the relatives of the deceased," he said.

He also awarded them the same punishment under Section 302 of the IPC read with Section 120B.

He gave them life imprisonment under Section 122 and Section 121A of the IPC and three counts of POTA.

He sentenced them to 20 years of RI under the Explosive Substances Act and asked them to pay fine of Rs 25,000 each.

In all the three accused were asked to pay fine of Rs 1.2 million each.

The court rejected the leniency plea of the defence counsel saying it was the rarest of rare case and the convicts deserved the most severe punishment.

This was the first conviction and sentence under the newly enacted POTA.

Shaukat broke down when the sentence was announced.

Afzal was furious. "We never expected justice from the court," he said.

The Delhi police tried to prevent the convicted persons from speaking to the media.

Outside the court, some Shiv Sainiks burst crackers after the sentence was announced, throwing the police into a tizzy.

When the confusion cleared, they started shouting slogans like 'Pakistan murdabad'.

Nitya Ramakrishnan, advocate for Shaukat and his wife, described the death sentence as "savage".

She said she would appeal against the order in the Delhi high court.

The Attack on Parliament: The Full Coverage

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