The Hindu : Death sentence for 4 Al-Umma men

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 24, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Death sentence for 4 Al-Umma men

By V.S. Palaniappan

Coimbatore Dec. 23. Four of the Al-Umma cadres, accused in the constable Selvaraj murder case, have been awarded capital punishment and the other four sentenced to life by Fast Track Court II here.

R. Prem Kumar, judge, who pronounced them guilty on Friday, delivered the sentence today. Selvaraj was stabbed to death by the extremists at Ukkadam here on November 29, 1997. Cases were registered against nine persons, one of whom, Coonoor Sahul, died in police firing.

When the case was taken up for pronouncement of verdict, B. Mohan, defence counsel, petitioned the court, seeking permission for further submission of material evidence under Section 309 Cr.P.C to supplement the oral submissions he made (during the arguments) on Friday. The Special Public Prosecutor, Sankaranarayanan, contended that the 309 Cr.P.C rule was not applicable at this juncture. The judge then dismissed the petition.

Mr. Prem Kumar ruled: ``With a view to taking revenge on the police for an alleged insult meted out to their general secretary (now the Amir), Md. Ansari, at the Big Bazaar police station, the Al-Umma cadres resolved to rip Coimbatore into two and showed their hatred by murdering the constable, inflicting 15 stab injuries. An assault on a constable serving society was an assault on society itself.

``The murder and the subsequent violent incidents here led to as many as 520 cases and damage to property worth Rs. 70.50 crores, besides the murder of 24 persons belonging to both communities. The retaliatory action culminated in the February 14, 1998 blasts here, causing the death of 59 persons and injuries to 249 persons, besides damage to property worth Rs. 17 crores.

``The accused were aware of the consequences and the consequences were their intentions'', the judge said, noting ``it was the gravest of grave and rarest of rare offences''.

Any leniency in the sentence to the first four accused — Shafi, Ashiq, Abbas and Abudahir — charged with unlawful assembly (IPC 147) and murder (IPC 302) could not be conceded for the simple reason that there were fair chances of the accused committing a similar offence. Hence, he sentenced them ``to be hanged till their last breath". He ordered that the material evidence and case records be referred to the Madras High Court for confirmation of the sentence under Section 366 Cr.P.C. He gave 30 days time for the accused to go on appeal.

Mr. Prem Kumar sentenced the fifth, sixth and seventh accused, Siddiq Ali, Aslam alias Tada Aslam and Samsudeen, who were charged with unlawful assembly with deadly weapons (IPC 148), murder (302) and unlawful assembly with intent to commit murder (149), to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year for unlawful assembly and a life term for the murder (to be undergone concurrently).

The imprisonment undergone during the trial period could be set off against the sentence.

The eighth accused, Md.Ansari, who was charged with abetting, aiding and instigating the murder (IPC 109) and murder (302), was sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 25,000.

The accused raised slogans dubbing the verdict ``judicial extremism''. Md.Shafi, first accused, and Siddiq Ali have already been sentenced life term by the second additional sessions court in the 1994 Kottai Amir murder case.

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