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| India-Pakistan |
| Mumbai blasts: prosecution seeks death sentence for 44 |
| 2007-02-15 |
| Mumbai: The prosecution on Thursday completed arguments on the quantum of sentence in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case and pleaded for death sentence for 44. It, however, submitted that Rubina Memon, Somnath Thapa and Imitiaz Gawte, be spared of death sentence as Thapa and Gawte were ill and Rubina was a woman. CBI prosecutor N. Natarajan sought maximum punishment for the rest of the accused after dividing them in to three groups, as per the sections under which they were found guilty. The 44 were found guilty under 120-b (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code or Section 3 (2) (i) (terrorist act resulting in death) of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. Mr. Natarajan said the country had been facing terrorism for the last 20 years and the accused must be given maximum punishment as prescribed in relevant enactments, as this would prove to be a "deterrent." He cited several Supreme Court judgments and sought maximum punishment for the accused in the remaining two groups. The second group includes accused convicted under Section 3(3) (terrorist activities not resulting in death) of the TADA Act and face a maximum of life imprisonment. However, he prayed for lesser sentence for the two women in the group, Mubina Bhiwandiwala and Zaibunissa Qazi. The third group comprises accused facing conviction under the Arms Act and Customs Act. It includes actor Sanjay Dutt. Most of the accused were present in the court. Those who face death sentence include three brothers of prime accused Tiger Memon — Yakub, Essa and Yusuf, as well as Mohammed Shoaib Ghansar, Asgar Yusuf Mukadam, Shahnawaz Qureshi, Abdul Gani Ismail Turk, Parvez Nazir Shaikh, Mohammed Iqbal Shaikh, Nasim Bharmare, Mustaq Tarani, Mohammed Farooq Pawale, Bashir Ahmed Usman Gani, Zakir Hussain Noor, Abdul Akhtar Khan, Firoze Amani Malik, Sakim Rahim Shaikh and Moin Qureshi and Eijaz Pathan. The court fixed February 23 for statement by defence counsel on the quantum of sentence. |
| Posted by:john |
| #1 sounds right to me |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-02-15 20:19 |