Kerala HC upholds life term in terror recruitment case

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Monday upheld the conviction and life sentence of 10 accused, including suspected Lashkar-e-tayyiba operative Thadiyantavide Naseer, by an NIA court in 2013 in a case related to the recruitment of youths from Kerala for terror camps in Jammu and Kashmir to ‘wage war against India.’

The court freed three of the accused including MH Faisal of Kannur Uruvachaal, Kannur Ponthavalapp native Mohammed Navas and Omar Farooq of Parappanangadi Chetippadi.

Life term imprisonment has been confirmed for rest of the convicts by the court. Earlier, some of them were awarded double life term.

High Court also allowed the appeal filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) seeking to include some provisions against some of the accused.

While upholding their convictions, the court said: For those who have such radical thoughts, we can only say that the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence, if you just look at history.

The NIA court had convicted and sentenced to life term 13 persons for the offences of waging war against India and conspiring to wage war against the country as provided under Sections 121 and 121A of the Indian Penal Code.

The court had also sentenced them to life in prison for various offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Naseer, the third accused, tried to generate hatred and enmity against the administration and others helped Naseer in this regard, the court found.

The Division Bench comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and C Jayachandran considered the appeal filed by NIA and by the main accused, including Naseer, Sarfras Navas, Sabir P Buhari, Abdul Jaleel and Abdul Jabbar.

The High Court, in its 205-page judgment, also dismissed the appeals of the 10 accused against their conviction and sentence by the NIA court in 2013.

The bench also additionally convicted the 10 accused for the offences of criminal conspiracy, collecting arms to wage war against India and sedition as provided under Sections 120B, 122 and 124A of the IPC, respectively, and sentenced them to life imprisonment for each of these crimes.

The High Court, however, said the life sentences shall run concurrently.

The 10 accused were convicted for the offences under Sections 120B, 122 and 124A of IPC on an appeal moved by the NIA against the acquital of all the 13 accused for these crimes.

Four of the 24 accused were killed in the encounter with the army in Kashmir and two others are on the run.

Five of the 18 accused were absolved by the court. Thirteen persons were convicted.