Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 5, 2006
Introduction: Court says showing mercy to
terrorists will be a mockery of justice
The Delhi high court showed no mercy to a
man who allegedly planted a bomb in a bus in 1997 during the serial blasts
which shocked the capital.
The HC sentenced the man to death, upholding
the verdict of a lower court. In a strongly worded judgment, Mohammad Hussain's
plea to set him free was struck down by a bench of Justice R S Sodhi and Justice
P K Bhasin for "satisfying the conscience of society", as the accused
was a "menace to society" and did not "deserve to exist on
this earth".
"Showing any mercy to people like the
appellant would be a mockery of justice... whenever some person is found guilty
of this kind of gruesome act and ghastly murder, the penalty of death sentence
is the only appropriate punishment and there is no alternative to it,"
the judges observed. Referring to a SC judgment, the court bracketed the case
under the rarest of rare category, which is the ground for death penalty for
those found guilty of murder.
Subscribing to the view of the trial court
and giving it their consideration, the judges termed Hussain's act of creating
circumstances causing the death of four people as heinous.
"Our country has been a victim of many
such incidents of bomb blasts for some years now at the hands of the terrorists
and innocent lives have been lost. Those incidents have shaken the entire
nation... there are no mitigating circumstances in favour of the appellant
for leaving him alive," the judges said. The serial blasts in 1997 had
led to the death of several people.
The case relates to the incident of December
30, '97 wherein an explosion took place inside a Blue-line bus at Rampura
bus stand, killing four passengers and inuring 24. Hussain was arrested on
February 27, '98 subsequent to the recovery of explosives. He was nabbed from
his house in Lajpat Nagar.
