The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the conviction of two accused in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case and sentenced them to life imprisonment without remission.
The conviction of two other former death row convicts, who were discharged by the Delhi High Court, was also restored and they were awarded life sentences extending to the rest of their natural lives.
A Bench of Justice B.R. Gavai, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sanjay Karol further restored the conviction of two other former death row convicts, who were discharged by the Delhi High Court and awarded them life sentences extending to the rest of their natural lives.
The order was passed on appeals pending before the Apex Court for more than a decade. While accused Mohammed Naushad and Javed Ahmed Khan had challenged their conviction and sentence, the Delhi government had filed special leave petitions against the High Court.
The High Court had commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment, which was awarded to Naushad by a Delhi court. The High Court had also acquitted two death row convicts – Mirza Nissar Hussain and Mohammed Ali Bhatt.
The Division Bench, while dismissing the appeals filed by Naushad and Khan for overturning their conviction, allowed the State’s plea. However, it refused to restore the death sentences awarded by the lower court.
The Bench observed that even though it was a rarest of the rare case, nonetheless considering several factors, it was bound to impose a sentence of imprisonment without remission extending to natural life.
It directed Mirza Nissar Hussain and Mohammed Ali Bhatt to immediately surrender before the police.
The case pertained to a bomb blast, which rocked Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar Central Market in 1996, claiming 13 lives and injuring 38 people, besides causing extensive damage to property.