4 sentenced to life in prison without remission in Lajpat Nagar blast case

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court sentenced four people on Thursday to life in prison without the option of seeking remission for carrying out a deadly bomb blast in south Lajpat Nagar's Central Market in 1996 in which 13 people were killed and 38 others were injured

- Abraham Thomas

While noting that the death of 13 innocent people in the blast was certainly a "rarest of rare" crime that deserved the death penalty, the court did not agree with the prosecution plea that the convicts be awarded death. The court said that the long delay in the trial compromised national interest and paved the way for a less severe punishment.

A bench of justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol sentenced Mirza Nissar Hussain and Mohammad Ali Bhatt, who were acquitted by the Delhi high court in November 2012, to life in prison and ordered them to surrender immediately. The top court also upheld the life sentences awarded to Mohammad Naushad and Javed Ahmed Khan by the Delhi high court.

"In view of the severity of the offence resulting in deaths of innocent persons and the role played by each accused, all these persons are sentenced to imprisonment for life, without remission, extending to natural life," the 190-page judgment concluded, holding each of the four people guilty.

Naushad was sentenced to death by the trial court in April 2010, but the high court commuted his sentence to life in prison, and Khan was sentenced to life imprisonment by both the trial court and the high court.

The bomb placed inside a stolen vehicle exploded May 21, 1996, in one of the most frequented markets in Delhi.