The Delhi High Court on Friday upheld a lower court verdict awarding life imprisonment to three Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists under stringent POTA and other penal laws dealing with offences including waging war against the Government.
The court, however, granted partial relief to two other JeM militants, Atiq-uz-Zama and Raees-uz-Zama, by reducing their rigorous life imprisonment to 11 years jail term in the case in which Delhi Police had arrested the five convicts on August 30-31, 2003 following an encounter. The police had recovered a huge quantity of arms and ammunitions from them and they had also intercepted a truck containing explosives in a parking lot at Sadar Bazaar.
“The primary reason why we have awarded less than maximum sentence to accused (brothers) Atiq-uz-Zama and Raees-uz-Zama is that before their arrest, they individually did not undertake or participate in any terrorist attack or action. They did go to Pakistan and as per their confessions, they attended training camps and clandestinely re-entered India but at the time of search or arrest, no firearm or live explosives substances like bombs etc were recovered at their behest and from their residence,” the court said in the order.
“The sentence of 11 years of jail term would meet ends of justice with hope and expectation that they would, in future, act as responsible citizens and not tread on their earlier path,” a Bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and SP Garg said.