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Political Notes

	August 06, 2007

Sanjay Dutt gets six years in jail : sentencing complete in 1993 blasts case



Film actor Sanjay Dutt has been sentenced to six years in jail and fined Rs. 25,000 in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case for illegal possession of a prohibited weapon. With the sentenc¬ing of Sanjay Dutt on Tuesday, July 31, the curtain came down on the longest running criminal trial in India’s judicial history. Twelve convicts have got death while 20 others have been sen¬tenced to life.



For three associates of Sanjay Dutt, whose sentencing also came up on July 31, one Yusuf Nulwalla got five years rigorous imprisonment for helping dispose of the AK-56 rifle in Sanjay Dutt’s possession. Another Kersi Adajania, who tried to destroy the AK-56 in his factory was given two years rigorous imprison¬ment under the Arms Act. Rusi Mulla, 64, was set free under the Probation of Offenders Act in view of his old age and sickness.



After being kept for a couple of days in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai, Sanjay Dutt has now been shifted to Yerwada jail in Pune, the place where Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi had been kept in jail for years during the Freedom Struggle.



Sanjay Dutt’s sister and Congress MP, Priya Dutt, met party President Sonia Gandhi on August 3 to apprise her of the situa¬tion. The meeting took place against the backdrop of what the family sympathisers call a groundswell of sympathy and solidari¬ty with the actor.



Sanjay Dutt is likely to file an appeal against the sentence and to seek bail pending a decision on the appeal.



In a related significant development, the apex court on August 1 asked the petitioners seeking the implementation of the Srikrishna Commission Report on the Mumbai riots following the Babri Masjid demolition in Dec. 1992 to file an affidavit detail¬ing the State Government’s alleged lapses in taking action against those involved. The apex court indicated that it would not hesitate to order reinvestigation and proper prosecution of all the accused involved in the 1992 Mumbai riots on the lines of its directions over the 2002 Gujarat communal carnage.



CPI(M) MP Hannan Mollah has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure that justice was given to the victims of one of the worst communal riots in the history of the country. Express¬ing concern over non-implementation of the Srikrishna Commission Report, he said the report became available nine years ago, but the Congress-led Government in Maharashtra has been sleeping over it.



Coimbatore blasts case : Al Umma founder convicted



A special court in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu has convicted Al Umma founder S.A. Basha and 152 others in the 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts case. But the founder of the Kerala-based People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Abdul Nasser Maudhany was acquitted of all charges.



Judge K. Uthirapathy is expected to begin sentencing of the convicted from August 16.



Besides Maudhany, seven others were acquitted. The verdict in respect of five other accused was deferred for modification of the charges against them.



The blasts on February 14, 1998, timed to coincide with the visit of Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani to the city for electioneering, left 58 persons dead and more than 250 in¬jured.



Of the 181 accused of involvement in the serial blasts, eight died in police firing and in a storming operation on a suspected hideout.



Immediately after the Coimbatore court acquitted Maudhany, there was a race between the Left and the Congress in Kerala to welcome him. Observers say there is no underestimating Maud¬hany’s political value. He emerged a key figure in the 2001 and 2006 Assembly elections. He played a role in the victory of the Congress-led United Democratic Front in 2001. Five years later, the Left Democratic Front benefited from his disillusionment with the UDF for not delivering on arranging his release in the Coimbatore case. Maudhany issued a letter from jail to members of his organisation, PDP, declaring his support for the LDF.



Observers say that the two front politics in Kerala is set to be redrawn with Maudhany now announcing his plan to float a third front of minorities and dalits.





Two get death sentence in Beant Singh assassination case



A special court in Chandigarh on Tuesday, July 31, sentenced top operative of the terrorist outfit Babbar Khalsa International Jagtar Singh Hawara and a former member of Punjab police to death in the Beant Singh assassination case.



The pronouncements were made by the Additional District and Sessions Judge, R.K. Sondhi, amid tight security in the Burail jail, where the special court has conducted the trial since 1996. Shamsher Singh, Lakhwinder Singh and Gurmeet Singh were awarded life imprisonment, while Naseeb Singh got 10 years’ term and a fine of Rs 10,000.



Naseeb Singh, who has already spent 11 years in incarcera¬tion as an undertrial, was released. While the first five were found guilty under sections 302, 307, 120(b) of the IPC, the sixth was convicted under the Explosive Substances Act.