’93 blasts convict who went missing arrested from UP

MUMBAI: Dr Jalees Ansari, 68, serving a life term for his role in multiple blasts in 1993 and who went missing on January 16, a day before his parole ended, was arrested, while coming out of a mosque in Kanpur around 12.30pm on Friday. Ansari helped execute 43 explosions in Ajmer, Pune, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Mumbai and seven separate explosions on trains on December 6, 1993, the first anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

NEW DELHI: The execution of the death sentence in the rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedical student in 2012 was delayed on Friday, with a Delhi court issuing a fresh black warrant for 6am on February 1 for the four convicts after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected a mercy petition by one of them.

The court previously set January 22 as the date for the hanging in the sensational case that triggered nationwide protests and paved the way for stricter antirape laws in the country. On Friday, however, additional sessions judge Satish Kumar Arora expressed displeasure while saying that the death sentence will now be executed at 6am on February 1. “This case presents a scenario when convicts were given the opportunity to file mercy but only one preferred. There might be delay tactics. For how long will this go on? Had death warrant not been issued, the convicts would not have initiated their legal remedies,” Arora said.

The Delhi court was hearing the plea by Mukesh for the postponement of the date of his execution scheduled for 7am on January 22 in view of the pendency of his mercy petition. According to a previous Supreme Court judgment and prison rules, a convict can’t be hanged for at least 14 days after his mercy plea is rejected, which explains the February 1 death warrant.

Three of the four convicts — Akshay Kumar Thakur (33), Pawan Gupta (25) and Vinay Sharma (27) — still have legal remedies available to them. While Akshay and Pawan can still file curative pleas (the last recourse from the legal system), all convicts except Mukesh also have the provision to seek mercy from the President.