Author: Bishwadeep Ghosh
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 5, 2008
For the first time, Islamists picked up in
Uttar Pradesh have been successfully prosecuted in a fast track court. Five
fanatics, including one from West Bengal, who had conspired to carry out bombings
in Lucknow, have been sentenced to life imprisonment for waging war against
the state
On a windy winter morning at a shabby Lucknow
court room, additional district judge Dharam Raj did his bit to take the wind
out of the ever-growing terror network's sails in Uttar Pradesh.
On January 23, he scripted life sentences to five fanatical Indian Muslims
aligned to a Bangldesh-based Islamist group for waging war against the state
in the name of jihad. The otherwise routine conviction is sure to spur judges
to take a firm stand against agents and agencies working overtime against
the country.
The five youth -- four from Uttar Pradesh
and another from West Bengal -- were members of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba's offshoot
Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami and were arrested by Special Task Force sleuths from
Shaheed Path in Lucknow on the eve of Ram Navami on April 5, 2006, with a
huge cache of arms and ammunition. Their sinister plan included the bombing
of temples to fan communal passion that could have resulted in retaliatory
violence.
The country's most populous State has been
in national focus for all the wrong reasons most of the times. As if organised
crime, kidnapping as an industry, the politician-criminal-police nexus and
dacoit gangs were not enough, Lucknow moved into jihad's radar when a massive
blast claimed several lives at Charbagh railway station in January, 1993.
Thereafter, owing to conditions that were
-- and remain -- conducive to the growth of radical Islamism, fanatical groups
and their conduits have used Lucknow as a safe transit point. In the process,
several operatives of Islamic terror groups Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Tayyeba,
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the likes were arrested from time to time.
But while the law-enforcing agencies did a
commendable job in the field, their paper work was abysmally shoddy. The performance
of the prosecution was even worse. Despite there being clinching evidence
-- for instance, of deadly explosives like RDX and grenades, and weapons like
Kalashnikov rifles -- the prosecution has abjectly failed in making the charge
of waging war against the state stick on the accused. As a result, fast track
courts hearing cases of these hardcore Islamic militants only handed out sentences
for carrying illegal arms and ammunition and resisting arrest by the police,
but not for treason.
When the case involving the five activists
of HuJI came up for trial, the common refrain was not very encouraging. But
the entire process has been an epoch-making deviation from the past.
The youth, identified as Mehboob Alam Mondol
of 24-Parganas (West Bengal), Mohammed Rizwan Ahmad and Mohammed Shaad of
Amroha (Uttar Pradesh), Syed Shoaib Hassan of Aligarh and Farhan Ahmad Khan
of Lucknow, crossed over to Bangladesh and then travelled to Pakistan on fake
passports where they underwent a rigorous 28-day crash training in the use
of arms and explosives. After picking up jihadi skills, they returned to India
to indulge in subversive activities, but ran out of luck.
Interestingly, all the accused, as per their
counsel, did not have any criminal background and one was even a teacher.
This is a pointer as to how pan-Islamism is being used to rouse the religious
passion of individuals who have otherwise not participated in any violent
activity.
After a not-so-long trial, during which the
prosecution presented 63 evidences, including personal depositions and exhibits,
the sentence was pronounced on January 23. Highlighting the "humble and
clean background" of the accused, the defence pleaded that since they
were first time offenders, they be sympathetically treated and given light
sentences.
Judge Dharam Raj, however, was in no mood
to relent. Maintaining that since they had assembled at one place to carry
out bombings to fan communal passion and violence ahead of Ram Navami, the
nature of the crime was grave and they could not be let off lightly. The judge
felt that the success of their evil mission would have meant large-scale devastation
in Lucknow and a sharp divide along religious lines between the two communities.
The judge further observed that it was deemed necessary to hand out stringent
punishment to meet the ends of justice. The sentence was indeed severe.
All five were handed out life term for conspiring
and waging war against the state. Besides, they were sentenced to 31 years
in prison for whipping up communal frenzy and four other sections pertaining
to sedition and unlawful assembly. For being in possession of arms, ammunitions
and explosives, the men were handed out terms between three and five years
and slapped fines. All sentences are to run concurrently.
The judgment assumes importance and is epoch-making
in the sense that in earlier cases of terror links being caught and tried,
all of them got away with lighter sentences instead of the charge of war against
the state.
Two recent cases in point are LeT operatives
Masood and Rasheed. The two men were arrested with four kg of RDX and detonators
from Lucknow Cantonment on May 21, 2005. While Masood was never convicted,
Rasheed got away with a minor sentence for carrying illegal weapons.
On August 13 last year, two other LeT agents,
Altaf and Saleem, were picked up and charged with treason, carrying explosives
and resisting arrest. Both were sentenced by a lower court, but only for carrying
illegal weapons as the treason charge could not be proved.
Ironically, besides the weak follow-up during
the trial, the State Government did not even bother to appeal against the
lower court order in the High Court for pressing the charge of treason.
Hailing the judgement, DIG (Lucknow range)
Chandra Prakash said, "This is indeed a landmark judgement and should
serve as a deterrent for youth with hardcore leanings. At the same time, the
police and prosecution should work harder to ensure more such convictions
and thwart the evil designs of terror outfits."
