NIA prosecutor K. Surender on Monday told the NIA Special Court here that the five Indian Mujahideen operatives, convicted for the 2013 Dilsukhnagar blasts case, should be awarded the highest punishment. He maintained that the Constitution had guaranteed the right to life to people but the convicts had decimated 18 lives by detonating two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)
On December 13, the court had convicted the five operatives — IM co-founder Mohd Ahmed Sidibapa alias Yasin Bhatkal, Pakistani national Zia-ur-Rahman alias Waqas, Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi, Tahaseen Akhtar alias Monu and Ajaz Shaikh — all presently held in judicial custody and lodged in the Cherlapalli Central Prison here.
The Telangana police had made made elaborate security arrangements in the vicinity of the prison ahead of the sentencing.
Defence counsel absent
Since counsel for the convicts had not turned up, the judge asked them if they had anything to say. “The convicts said ‘let us be hanged’ when the judge sought their reaction to the prosecutor’s argument,” a police officer, who was present at the court, told The Hindu, requesting anonymity. “ Phaansi do (Hang us)” were the words allegedly used by them.
Along with the death sentence, the judge imposed varied fines under different sections of the law. “The convicts asked the judge if they could pay the fine amounts in banned currency notes or use the new ones,” the police officer said.
Mr. Surender, speaking to media persons outside the prison, said the court was convinced of the reliability of witnesses presented by the prosecution. “The convicts have liberty to go for an appeal but as prosecutors we did our job,” he said.
(with inputs from PTI)
