The Delhi High Court today upheld a lower court verdict awarding life imprisonment to three Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists under stringent POTA and other penal laws dealing with offences including waging war against the government.
The court, however, granted partial relief to two other JeM militants, Atiq-uz-Zama and Raees-uz-Zama, by reducing their rigorous life imprisonment to eleven years jail term in the case in which Delhi police had arrested the five convicts on August 30-31, 2003 following an encounter.
The police had recovered a huge quantity of arms and ammunitions from them and they had also intercepted a truck containing explosives in a parking lot at Sadar Bazaar here.
"The primary reason why we have awarded less than maximum sentence to accused (brothers) Atiq-uz-Zama and Raees-uz-Zama is that before their arrest, they individually did not undertake or participate in any terrorist attack or action.
"They did go to Pakistan and as per their confessions, they attended training camps and clandestinely re-entered India but at the time of search or arrest, no firearm or live explosives substances like bombs etc were recovered at their behest and from their residence.
