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Five get death penalty in Mumbai train blasts case

Mumbai - Seven get life in prison for 2006 explosions.

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An Indian court sentenced five people to death on Wednesday for serial blasts in Mumbai trains in 2006 that killed nearly 200 people.
Another seven convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment.
A special MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime act) court had earlier this month convicted a dozen people for triggering off the seven blasts that ripped through crowded suburban trains during the evening peak hours on July 11, 2006. The terror attacks along the Western Railway corridor between Mahim and Bhayander killed at least 189 people and wounded more than 800 people.
Special judge Yatin Shinde sentenced Kamal Ansari, Mohammed Sheikh, Ehtesham Siddiqui, Naveed Khan and Asif Khan (all in their '30s) to death for planting RDX explosives in pressure cookers and placing them in the overhead luggage section of the first-class compartments of the trains at Churchgate station, before they left for Andheri and Borivali.
The blasts, which occurred in a span of 11 minutes, were one of the worst attacks on Mumbai, which has been targeted by terrorists over the past quarter century. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had accused 30 people of perpetrating the attacks.
Thirteen were nabbed (of whom one was acquitted by the MCOCA court), while 17 are absconding. The prosecution claims they include 13 Pakistanis and members of the Lashkar-e-Tayyba, a Pakistan-based terrorist outfit.

> Death penalty: Kamal A. Ansari, Ehtesham Siddiqui, Faisal Attaur Rehman Sheikh, Asif Khan alias Junaid, and Naved Hussain Khan > Life in prison: medico Tanvir A. Ansari, Mohammed Sajid Ansari, Sheikh Mohammed Ali Alam Sheikh, Mohammed Majid Shafi, Muzammil Sheikh, Soheil Mohammed Sheikh, and Zamir Ahmed Sheikh > In all, 30 people, including 13 Pakistani nationals, charged over the bombings, who along with four Indian suspects have yet to be arrested. > Largest number of death sentence handed in one go since 2006, when 11 people sentenced to death in 1993 Mumbai blasts > 10 of the death sentences were later commuted to life imprison-ment while only Yakub Memon hanged

Describing the convicts as 'merchants of death,' special public prosecutor Raja Thakare had sought the capital punishment for eight of the dozen convicts. He had urged the court not to let taxpayer's money be spent on maintaining the convicts in jail for 40 to 50 years.
The seven convicts who will now serve a life sentence include Tanvir Ansari, Mohammed Shafi, Sheikh Alam, Mohammed Ansari, Muzammil Sheikh, Sohail Sheikh and Zamir Sheikh. They were convicted on charges of providing logistical support for making the bombs.
All 12 accused were convicted under among others the Indian Penal Code, the Explosives Act, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Indian Railway Act.
The defence team had argued that the dozen persons were merely acting as pawns of Azam Cheema, an LeT commander. Sharif Sheikh, the defence lawyer, claimed the convicts were innocent and that they would approach the Bombay high court seeking relief.
"We still believe they have been framed and the court has relied on confessions and not on mitigating evidence," Wahab Khan, another defence lawyer, told reporters outside the court. Over the course of the nine-year trial, the court examined nearly 250 witnesses.
The accused were represented by Shahid Azmi, a Muslim rights activist and lawyer, who was mysteriously killed by unidentified gunmen in 2010. Wednesday's ruling is believed to be the largest number of death sentences handed down in one go since 2006, when 11 people were sentenced to hang for perpetrating deadly bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993.
Ten of those sentences were later commuted to life in prison, however. Only Yakub Memon, who was hanged in July, failed to have his death sentence upheld on appeal.
The men convicted on Wednesday can appeal to Mumbai's high court and then India's Supreme Court in New Delhi. If those appeals fail they also have the option of making a mercy plea to India's president. "The whole process could take a year," terrorism and security expert Sameer Patel said.
With inputs from AFP
nithin@khaleejtimes.com

india

> Death penalty: Kamal A. Ansari, Ehtesham Siddiqui, Faisal Attaur Rehman Sheikh, Asif Khan alias Junaid, and Naved Hussain Khan
> Life in prison: medico Tanvir A. Ansari, Mohammed Sajid Ansari, Sheikh Mohammed Ali Alam Sheikh, Mohammed Majid Shafi, Muzammil Sheikh, Soheil Mohammed Sheikh, and Zamir Ahmed Sheikh
> In all, 30 people, including 13 Pakistani nationals, charged over the bombings, who along with four Indian suspects have yet to be arrested.
> Largest number of death sentence handed in one go since 2006, when 11 people sentenced to death in 1993 Mumbai blasts
> 10 of the death sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment while only Yakub Memon hanged