1996 Delhi Blasts Case: Supreme Court Gives Life Term To 4 Convicts
NDTV
The Supreme Court said the convicts executed an "international conspiracy" to "destabilise" India by carrying out the blast.
Nearly 27 years after 13 people were killed and 38 injured in a bomb explosion at a bustling Lajpat Nagar market in Delhi, the Supreme Court on Thursday handed down life sentence to four convicts for the remainder of their lives without remission, saying they executed an "international conspiracy" to "destabilise" India by carrying out the blast.
The top court, which dwelt in detail on the severity of the offence, however, did not agree with the vehement plea of the prosecution that the convicts be awarded the death penalty for snuffing out innocent lives in the blast on May 21, 1996.
The bench comprising Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol, in its 190-page judgement, spared the four convicts -- Mohd Naushad, Mirza Nissar Hussain alias Naza, Mohd Ali Bhatt alias Killey and Javed Ahmed Khan -- the gallows on the ground of delay.
