LETHALFORCE
Mod
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2009
- Messages
- 29,880
- Likes
- 48,585
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110811/jsp/nation/story_14366156.jsp
New Delhi, Aug. 10: The Supreme Court today upheld death for Pakistan national Mohamed Arif in the Red Fort attack case, saying the indiscriminate firing by gunmen on an army unit there was "an attack on Mother India".
Three jawans of the 7 Rajputana Rifles were killed in the December 2000 attack on the fort. While Arif alias Ashfaq was awarded the death penalty for murder and waging war on India, the remaining 10 accused, all Indians, were acquitted. Arif then moved the Supreme Court.
A top court bench, comprising Justices V.S. Sirpurkar and T.S. Thakur, today dismissed his appeal and confirmed the death penalty awarded to him.
""¦it is a unique case where there is one most aggravating circumstance (against the accused) that it was a direct attack on the unity, integrity and sovereignty of India by foreigners. Thus, it was an attack on Mother India.
"This is apart from the fact that as many as three persons had lost their lives. The conspirators had no place in India. Appellant was a foreign national and had entered India without any authorisation or even justification," the court said.
The judges said "the appellant built up a conspiracy by practising deceit and committing various other offences in furtherance of the conspiracy to wage war against India as also to commit murders by launching an unprovoked attack on soldiers of the Indian Army. We, therefore, have no doubts that death sentence was the only sentence in the peculiar circumstance of this case.
"We, therefore, confirm the judgment of the trial court and the high court convicting the accused and awarding death sentence for the offences under Section 302, IPC."
The court said an attack on a symbol like the Red Fort was an assault on the nation's will and resolve to preserve its integrity and sovereignty at all costs.
"It was a challenge not only to army battalions stationed inside the monument but the entire nation. It was a challenge to the very fabric of a secular constitutional democracy this country has adopted and everything that is good and dear to our countrymen.
"It was a blatant, brazen-faced and audacious act aimed to overawe the government of India. It was meant to show that the enemy could with impunity reach and destroy the very vitals of an institution so dear to our"¦ countrymen"¦."
The court said the attack was "an arrogant assault on the self respect of this great nation. It was a well thought out insult offered to question the sovereignty of this great nation by foreign nationals".
"Therefore, this case becomes a rarest of rare case. This was nothing but an undeclared war by some foreign mercenaries"¦. In conspiring to bring about such kind of attack and then carrying out their nefarious activities in systematic manner to make an attack possible was nothing but an attempt to question the sovereignty of India. Therefore, even without any reference to any other case law, we held this case to be the rarest of rare case."
New Delhi, Aug. 10: The Supreme Court today upheld death for Pakistan national Mohamed Arif in the Red Fort attack case, saying the indiscriminate firing by gunmen on an army unit there was "an attack on Mother India".
Three jawans of the 7 Rajputana Rifles were killed in the December 2000 attack on the fort. While Arif alias Ashfaq was awarded the death penalty for murder and waging war on India, the remaining 10 accused, all Indians, were acquitted. Arif then moved the Supreme Court.
A top court bench, comprising Justices V.S. Sirpurkar and T.S. Thakur, today dismissed his appeal and confirmed the death penalty awarded to him.
""¦it is a unique case where there is one most aggravating circumstance (against the accused) that it was a direct attack on the unity, integrity and sovereignty of India by foreigners. Thus, it was an attack on Mother India.
"This is apart from the fact that as many as three persons had lost their lives. The conspirators had no place in India. Appellant was a foreign national and had entered India without any authorisation or even justification," the court said.
The judges said "the appellant built up a conspiracy by practising deceit and committing various other offences in furtherance of the conspiracy to wage war against India as also to commit murders by launching an unprovoked attack on soldiers of the Indian Army. We, therefore, have no doubts that death sentence was the only sentence in the peculiar circumstance of this case.
"We, therefore, confirm the judgment of the trial court and the high court convicting the accused and awarding death sentence for the offences under Section 302, IPC."
The court said an attack on a symbol like the Red Fort was an assault on the nation's will and resolve to preserve its integrity and sovereignty at all costs.
"It was a challenge not only to army battalions stationed inside the monument but the entire nation. It was a challenge to the very fabric of a secular constitutional democracy this country has adopted and everything that is good and dear to our countrymen.
"It was a blatant, brazen-faced and audacious act aimed to overawe the government of India. It was meant to show that the enemy could with impunity reach and destroy the very vitals of an institution so dear to our"¦ countrymen"¦."
The court said the attack was "an arrogant assault on the self respect of this great nation. It was a well thought out insult offered to question the sovereignty of this great nation by foreign nationals".
"Therefore, this case becomes a rarest of rare case. This was nothing but an undeclared war by some foreign mercenaries"¦. In conspiring to bring about such kind of attack and then carrying out their nefarious activities in systematic manner to make an attack possible was nothing but an attempt to question the sovereignty of India. Therefore, even without any reference to any other case law, we held this case to be the rarest of rare case."
