60 life sentences in a day tops court events in 2007

On October 24, 2007 a history of sorts was made in criminal justice as courts across the country gave 60 life sentences that day.

On October 24, 2007 a history of sorts was made in criminal justice as courts across the country gave 60 life sentences that day.

The convicts in four separate cases included a former minister, policemen, a lawyer and fundamentalist leaders.

The crimes ranged from bomb blasts in Coimbatore targeted at BJP leader L K Advani to the murder of a pregnant poetess in Lucknow by politician Amarmani Tripathi, killing of two businessmen in a fake police encounter in Delhi and burning of nine person alive during communal riots in Kanpur following demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya.

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In the 1998 Coimbatore blasts case, founder-leader of the banned Al-Umma, S A Basha and its general secretary, Mohammed Ansari were among 31 convicts, who were awarded life imprisonment.

Amarmani Tripathi, a former UP minister and now a Samajwadi party MLA, was convicted of murdering poetess Madhumita Shukla and sentenced to life imprisonment along with his wife Madhumani and two others by a court in Dehradun.

In Delhi, a trial court gave life terms to suspended ACP S S Rathi and nine other policemen for killing two innocent businessmen in a fake encounter at Connaught Place ten years ago.

In Kanpur, 15 persons, including a lawyer, were sentenced to life by a local court for burning nine persons to death in the communal riots that broke out after the demolition of the disputed structure on December 6, 1992.

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The year also witnessed conclusion of trial in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. Out of the 100 convicts, 12 were awarded death sentence and 20 life imprisonment.

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt got away with lesser jail term of six years as he was exonerated from the offence under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) and was held guilty under the Arms Act.

Abdul Karim Telgi, the kingpin of the multi-crore fake stamp scam, was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 13 years and fined over Rs 100 crore by a court in Pune after he dramatically broke down while pleading guilty and seeking leniency.

Among the other high-profile cases in which the verdict was keenly awaited was the Pramod Mahajan murder case in which his brother Pravin, who was the only accused, was handed down life term.

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The long arms of law finally caught up with controversial RJD MP Mohd Shahbuddin and former MP and JD(U) leader Anand Mohan and his wife Lovely Anand in Bihar.

While Shahbuddin, who is facing trial in 30 cases, was awarded life sentence by a Siwan court for kidnapping CPI (ML) worker eight years ago, Mohan and his wife were sentenced to death and life respectively for inciting a mob that lynched the then Gopalganj District Magistrate G Krishnaiah in 1994.

Though delayed, justice was finally done to the victims of the 1989 Bhagalpur riots cases when a local court gave life imprisonment to 14 people for the murder of 116 Muslims at Logain village. Those found guilty also included a police official.

Kameshwar Yadav, who enjoyed patronage during the Lalu-Rabri regime and was acquitted in the Bhagalpur riots cases, could not escape the law when after the re-trial of a case he was sentenced to life term for killing a Muslim betel shop owner during the riots.

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Former union minister and Congress leader Jagdish Tytler also had trouble stored for him when a court in Delhi directed CBI to re-investigate a case involving him in the 1984-anti-Sikh riots after a witness declared untraceable by the investigating agency surfaced in the United States.

Another Bollywood actor Salman Khan was in the limelight for wrong reasons this year as he had to regularly mark his presence during the trial of five cases relating to killings of blacbucks and Chinkaras in Jodhpur courts.

Finally on August 24, the star’s conviction for the killings of Chinkara deer in 1998 was upheld by a sessions court, which sentenced him to five years jail term forcing him to file an appeal in the Rajasthan High Court for bail.

Dara Singh, serving a life term for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines was given the same sentence this year by a court in Orissa for the killing of a Catholic priest Arul Doss in Mayurbhanj district eight years ago.

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Contrary to convictions in several high-profile cases, former union minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren got reprieve when the Delhi High Court set aside his conviction and life sentence awarded to him by the trial court in the 13-year-old Shashi Nath Jha murder case.

However, with CBI still pondering to appeal, Jha’s family has already moved the Supreme Court challenging his acquittal.