Bahujan Samajwadi Party’s candidate in 2008 assembly polls in Delhi, Mohd Afzal, was on Monday sent to six years in jail by a Delhi court for running an organised crime syndicate and accumulating huge wealth by committing the crimes.
Additional Sessions Judge Inderjeet Singh also imposed a fine of Rs. 9 lakh on Afzal for engaging in a string of unlawful activities and forcible eviction of premises with the object of accumulating illegal wealth.
Mr. Afzal, 45, had unsuccessfully contested the 2008 Delhi assembly polls from Seelampur. He has 19 criminal cases registered against him for offences including murder, criminal intimidation, unlawful assembly and assaulting public servants.
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Out of the fine amount, the court directed that Rs 70,000 be paid to prosecution witness Manzoor Ahmed who was forced to sell his property to Mr. Afzal.
“Manzoor Ahmed was not paid the amount of Rs 70,000 of balance consideration by the convict when the property was purchased. Therefore, out of the realized amount of fine, Rs 70,000 will be paid to him as compensation,” the ASJ said.
While awarding the sentence, the court considered Mr. Afzal’s age and also the fact that he has three minor daughters, four sons, an aged mother and four unmarried sisters to look after and that there is no other male member to look after them.
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“It is cardinal principle of administration of justice that rehabilitation and reform is one of the theories.
However, the state has presented the arguments in a manner as if there is no scope of such theory of reform. How a person/citizen can be deprived of his rights guaranteed by the law in its expressions in various forms, inclusive of the law laid down in precedents. The convict deserves leniency, considering the factors like, family strength, age of family members/dependents as well as his own age. Thus, the convict deserves all kind of leniency,” the ASJ said.