New Delhi: A special NIA court here on Tuesday awarded death penalty to seven ISIS operatives in the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train blast case in which nine persons had got seriously injured. Another accused in the 2017 case was awarded life imprisonment.
Those who were awarded death sentence included convicts Mohd Faisal, Gaus Mohd Khan, Mohd Azhar, Atiq Muzaffer, Mohd Danish, Mohd Sayyed Meer Hussain and Asif Iqbal alias Rokey. Mohd Atif, alias Asif Irani, was given life imprisonment.
Pronouncing the sentence, Judge VS Tripathi observed that the case fell in the rarest of rare category and as such the convicts were entitled to the severest punishment.
The court had convicted the accused on February 24 and fixed Tuesday for pronouncement of its verdict. It had found the accused guilty under Sections 121, 121-A, 122 and 123 of the IPC, Sections 17, 18, 18-A, 18-B, 23 and 38 of the UAPA and Sections 3, 25 and 35 of the Arms Act.
The convicts had pleaded that they had already been in jail for over five years and as such the court must show leniency in awarding sentence to them. Refuting the plea of convicts, the court said that the convicts waged war against the country and hence they were not entitled to any leniency.
