A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) Court on Tuesday sentenced lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT) operative and a key handler in the 26/11 attacks case, Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, and six others to life imprisonment in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case.
Pronouncing sentences on the convicts a week after he was found guilty in the 2006 Aurangabad arms hauls case, Additional Sessions Judge Shrikant Anekar awarded 14 years’ imprisonment to other two convicts and three others to eight years’ jail term. He imposed an imposed a fine of `20,000 on all these convicts and in the event of their failing to pay up the fine, they would have one additional year to each of these convicts.
On July 28, the special MCOCA Court had convicted 12 of the 22 total accused in the 2006 Aurangabad case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Explosive Substances Act, Explosives Act, Arms Act and Indian Penal Code. While convicting 12 out of the total 22 accused in the case, the Court had acquitted eight accused and separated the trial of two remaining accused in the case. The Judge had, however, dropped charges framed under MCOCA against all the 22 accused.
The seven convicts whom the MCOCA court awarded life sentence were: Abu Jundal, Mohammed Amir Shakil Ahmed, Bilal Ahmed Abdul Razaq, Sayyed Akif S Jafruddin, Afroz Khan Shahid Pathan, Faisal Ataur-Rehman Shaikh and M Aslam Kashmiri.
The two convicts, who were awarded 14 years’ jail term each, were: M Muzafar Mohammed Tanveer and M Sharif Shabbir Ahmed. The three remaining convicts who were sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment each were: Afzal K Nabi Khan, Mushtaq Ahmed M Isaf Shaikh and Javed A Abdul Majid.
Judge Anekar ruled that the respective prison terms already served by each of the convicts would be set off the sentences awarded to them. The three convicts—who have been sentenced to eight years of imprisonment-will not have to serve any further sentence, on the ground that they have already spent more the their sentence period behind the bars.
The lawyers, who appeared for the convicts in the case, said that they would move the Bombay High Court against the MCOCA Court’s verdict.
The prosecution’s version in the Aurangabad haul case was that after they chased a Tata Sumo jeep and an Indica car on Chandwad-Manmad highway near Aurangabad in the state on May 8, 2006, the ATS sleuths conducted raids at Malegaon, Nashik, Aurangabad and Beed and seized 43 kg of deadly RDX, 16 AK-47 assault rifles, 50 Chinese-made grenades and over 3,200 rounds. They also arrested three terror suspects in connection with the seizure.
Jundal, who was behind the wheels of a car that was being chased, had given a slip to the ATS sleuths, driven to Malegaon, where he handed over the vehicle to an acquaintance and escaped.
Son of a petty insurance agent, Jundal – after passing out of SSC–did electrical instrumentation in a technical institute in Beed district. Hailing originally from Gevrai town in Beed, Jundal’s family moved to Hattikhana locality in Beed town in 2005. He went missing after the Aurangabad arms haul in May 2006.
After having gone into hiding for a few weeks, Jundal fled first to Bangladesh, from where he went to Pakistan using a fake passport. Barring Jundal, other 21 terror suspects were arrested in connection with the Aurangabad arms haul case. The trial court framed charges against the 21 accused on August 17, 2012.
Jundal, who had been named as absconding accused in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case, was arrested in June 2012 on his arrival in New Delhi, following his deportation from Saudi Arabia where he had been holed up after shifting his base from Pakistan.
Following his arrest, the ATS filed a 3,650-page supplementary charge-sheet in the same court on November 3, 2012. During the case, the prosecution examined 100 witnesses, while defence lawyers examined 16.
In his verdict, the judge noted that the court had discarded seven confessions in the case and accepted other three, while observing that the accused had extensively used mobile and internet facility. He also accepted ATS’ case that Jundal was driving the Indica car.
The MCOCA court accepted the Prosecution’s case that the aim of the convicted accused was to create terror in the minds of people and to eliminate leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was then the Gujarat Chief Minister and right-wing leader leader Pravin Togadia to avenge the post-Godhra incident Gujarat riots.
Among other things, the court observed that the accused had shared “a common thought process and wanted to do something for Islam”.
While relying on the arm seizure, on confessions made, emails sent, call data records and other evidence gathered, the Judge also observed: “The evidence points that since 1996 Amir knew Mohammed Aslam Kashmiri who was part of the lashkar-e-Toiba. Amir had conceived the idea of striking terror and after 1999 was joined by others”.
Jundal, who also faces the charge of having been one of the key handlers in the 26/11 attacks case and also part of a conspiracy to attack the state police academy at Nashik in north Maharashtra, has been convicted and sentenced for the first time in any case.
In its 14,676 page supplementary charge-sheet filed in the 26/11 attack case in a city court on October 16, 2012, the Prosecution had charged Jundal with having taught Hindi to the lone surviving terrorist, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, and nine other fellow Pakistani terrorists who carried out the November 26-29, 2008 attack on Mumbai, in which 166 persons were killed and 260 others injured.
Jundal also faces the charges of having given directions to two of the Pakistani terrorists holed up at Nariman House, one of the terror targets, and briefing the Pakistani terrorists about the topography of south Mumbai where the attack took place.
Jundal was allegedly present along with let's chief commander Zaki-ur-Rehman laqvi and other conspirators at Karachi-based the terror outfit's “control room”, from where the attack on Mumbai was supervised.