Four persons have been sentenced to death in the Rampur terror attack case by a local court on Saturday. One person has been awarded life sentence while another accused has got 10 years’ jail. The sentence was pronounced by Sanjay Kumar Singh, Additional District and Session Judge, Rampur.
Sections 302, 121
Additional government counsel Amit Saxena said those who have been awarded capital punishment include two Pakistanis — Imran Shahzad and Mohammed Farooq. Imran hails from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir while Farooq is from Pakistan’s Punjab. Sahabuddin from Madhubani in Bihar and Mohammed Sharif from Rampur have also been given the maximum punishment. They have been convicted under Section 302 (murder) and Section 121 (waging a war against the state).
In his order, the judge said that the accused attacked the CRPF camp without any provocation with AK-47 rifles and hand grenades. Forensic evidence helped in nailing their active role in the case.
Jang Bahadur Baba, who, according to the prosecution, provided logistic support and kept a watch outside the camp during the attack, has been awarded life sentence. Faheem Ansari, who was absolved of waging a war against the state charge on Friday, has been awarded 10 years’ rigorous punishment in jail for possessing forged documents and illegal weapons. On whether Ansari would be released as he has already spent almost 12 years in jail, Mr. Saxena said it will take him a day to comment on the details of the 196-page judgment.
On Friday, the judge held six of the eight accused guilty in the case where in a pre-dawn attack on the CRPF Camp on Januray 1, 2008, seven jawans and a civilian were killed by terrorists. Defence lawyer M.S. Khan said that the prosecution was not able to establish the provocation behind the attack, the link with Lashkar-e-Taiba and the link between the accused. “We will appeal against the verdict in a higher court,” he said.
