SC upholds death penalty

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death penalty awarded to Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Mohammad Arif aka Ashfaq for killing three Army jawans during an attack with automatic weapons in the historic Red Fort, from where Prime Minister addresses the nation on August 15 every year. “This is a unique case where there is one most aggravating circumstance that it was a direct attack on the unity, integrity and sovereignty of India by foreigners. Thus, it was an attack on mother India. This is apart from the fact that as many as three persons had lost their lives,” SC said. A bench of Justices V S Sirpurkar and T S Thakur said the trial court as well as the Delhi High Court were right in awarding capital punishment to Ashfaq as the crime fell within the ‘rarest of the rare’ category warranting imposition of the extreme penalty. “We feel that this is a case where the conscience of the community would get shocked and it would definitely expect the death penalty for Ashfaq. Three persons who had nothing to do with the conspirators were killed in this case,” said Justice Sirpurkar, who wrote the judgment rejecting the condemned prisoner’s appeal. On December 22, 2000, at 9pm, some intruders started indiscriminate firing and gunned down three jawans of 7 Rajputana Rifles guarding the Red Fort. A quick reaction team returned the fire, but the intruders scaled the rear boundary and escaped towards Ring Road. Lashkar claimed responsibility for the attack.