SC affirms death penalty in 2000 Red Fort attack case

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed the death sentence of Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Mohd Ashfaq Arif, convicted of attacking an army barracks at Delhi’s Red Fort in December 2000, underlining that there was a direct strike at the unity, integrity and sovereignty of India.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit, dismissed the review petition filed by Arif noting the order of his conviction and sentence do not warrant any intervention in the wake of adequate evidence to prove his involvement in the crime beyond any doubt.

Charting out aggravating and mitigating circumstances of the case to ascertain whether the capital punishment is the only fitting punishment for Arif, the bench that also comprised justices S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi noted there is no ground to believe a possibility of retribution and rehabilitation of Arif, who is a Pakistan national.

“On the other hand, the aggravating circumstances evident from the record and especially the fact that there was a direct attack on the unity, integrity and sovereignty of India, completely outweigh the factors which may even remotely be brought into consideration as mitigating circumstances on record,” held the bench.

Arif, who was convicted for masterminding the attack, was given the death penalty by a Delhi trial court in 2005. The capital punishment for Arif was confirmed by the Delhi high court in 2007, and later upheld by the top court in 2011.

While the review petition filed by Arif was dismissed in 2012, his curative petition was rejected in 2014, marking the end of all

Two militants enter the

Red Fort, then being used as an army garrison, at night. They attack an army supply depot, killing two soldiers and a guard, before escaping. Lashkar-e-Taiba says it carried out the attack

Mohd Ashfaq Arif is arrested along with his wife, Rehmana Yousuf Farooqui

Arif and six others are convicted by a local court. Arif is found guilty of masterminding the attack, murder, criminal conspiracy and waging war against India and sentenced to death. The others given jail terms of varying length. His wife is found guilty of harbouring an offender

The Delhi high court upholds Arif's conviction, but releases others

SC upholds Arif's conviction

SC dismisses Arif's review plea

SC rejects his curative petition

SC decides to give Arif yet another chance in the wake of the September 2014 judgment by a Constitution bench . Arif files a second review

SC affirms Arif’s death sentence.

legal remedies available to him. But in 2016, the Supreme Court decided to give Arif yet another chance in the wake of the September 2014 judgment by a constitution bench that held review petitions of the condemned prisoners must be heard in open court rather than inside judges’ chambers without according them an opportunity to argue.

Subsequently, Arif filed a second review petition in which he sought setting aside of the order of his conviction and sentence on several grounds, including inadmissibility of call detail records (CDRs) mentioned by the prosecution as the most crucial piece of evidence to link the LeT terrorist with the attack.

In its judgment on Thursday, the top court said discounting the CDRs will not impact the outcome of the case since there

was overwhelming evidence to prove Arif’s culpability. “It must therefore be observed that even after eschewing circumstances which were directly attributable to the CDRs relied upon by the prosecution, the other circumstances on record do clearly spell out and prove beyond any doubt the involvement of the review petitioner in the crime in question,” held the bench.

Three people died in the attack on the 17th Century fort. As per the prosecution, two militants entered the Red Fort -- then being used as an army garrison -on December, 22, 2000. The gunmen attacked an army supply depot, killing two soldiers and a guard, before escaping.

Pakistan-based Lashkar-eTaiba claimed responsibility for the attack, straining relations between India and Pakistan.