Arms haul case: Court awards life term to Jundal, 6 others

LeT operative Abu Jundal and six others were today awarded life term in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case by a MCOCA court which said that in the matter of national security "prevention is better than cure" and the convicts would understand "language of deterrence" better.
The 12 convicted people "on their own evolved and participated in the larger conspiracy of Jihad", Special Court judge Shrikant Anekar said in his order.
"India is a secular state, the ideology which accused are propagating (for which they have not shown their repentance...) runs counter to the shared values of the society and indeed the law of the land. Terrorism is evil which cannot be tolerated by any civilised society," he said.

By adopting protective and deterrent theory of punishment, the court can insulate the society at large from the effects of such disaffection, if not restraint such people from causing disaffection against the country, the judge said, noting, "This would set a lesson for prospective offenders."
Besides Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, who is also an alleged key plotter of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the court awarded life sentence to six others -- Mohammed Aamir Sheikh, Billal Ahmed, Sayed Akif, Afroz Khan, Mohammed Aslam Kashmiri and Faizal Ataur Rehman, who has been sentenced to death in 2006 Mumbai train blasts case.

They will undergo imprisonment for the remainder of their life, the court said.

Mohammed Mujaffar Tanvir and Dr Mohammed Sharif were sentenced to 14 years imprisonment while Mushtaq Ahmed, Javed Ahmed and Afzal Khan got eight years jail term.
On May 8, 2006, a Maharashtra Anti-terrorism Squad team chased two cars on Chandwad-Manmad highway near Aurangabad and arrested three men and seized 30 kg of RDX, 10 AK-47 assault rifles and 3,200 bullets.
The court said that the "aspect of security of the nation
will have to be given paramount consideration while deciding the quantum of punishment".
As the convicts wanted to "terrorise common man", they "understand and appreciate language of deterrence than the reformative jargon", it said.

The convicts visited different countries to seek financial and other aid to achieve the object of conspiracy, the court noted. "They met militants by visiting Kashmir. By dodging all security agencies, customs, BSF, etc., they had procured huge quantity of arms, ammunition, RDX from Pakistan."
Some of this contraband was still to be traced, "thus the potential threat still exists", the judge said.
The convicts hatched a conspiracy to "strike terror against India" and none of them expressed repentance, "which shows that they are not likely to be rehabilitated", it said.
"The well-known saying 'prevention is better than cure' is aptly applicable to the facts of the present case. The act of showing undue leniency to the accused should not prejudice the society in the long run," the court observed.

Regarding the defence of Mujaffar Tanvir that he was of tender age at that time, the court said that even then he knew how to get SIM cards on fictitious names for supplying them to the others involved.
As to the argument that the convcits were under "emotional pressure" because of the 2002 Gujarat riots, the court said there was considerable time gap between the riots and the conspiracy in 2006.
Leniency "would be against the social conscience", the court said, adding, "It will convey a wrong message".
On July 28, ten years after the arms seizure, the MCOCA court convicted 12 persons and acquitted eight others.

In the verdict, the judge had also accepted the prosecution case that the convicts wanted to eliminate public figures like then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Pravin Togadia of VHP.