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7/11: A Judgement Of Life And Death

The special judge tooka deep breath - and

10 minutes - before hecompleted pronouncingthe judgment in the 7/11blasts case. Five planterswere sentenced to be"hanged till death" andthe remaining seven wereawarded life in jail. Seven coordinated blastsin first class compart-ments of seven localtrains during the eveningpeak time in 2006 hadkilled 189 and left 819 in-jured, many of whomwere crippled for life. As the court session gotunder way around 12noon on Wednesday, hecalled out the names ofthe five planters. KamalAnsari, Faisal Shaikh,Ehtesham Siddiqui,Naveed Hussain and Asif

Khan sitting at the back inthe dock meant for ac-cused promptly stood up. The judge then read outthe sections under whichthey were held guilty andsaid 'to be hanged till theyare dead.' The judge thencalled out the names ofthe remaining convicts. Itwas the turn of MajidShafi, Sohail Shaikh, Za-meer Khan and MuzzamilShaikh to stand up. Thejudge read out the sec-tions, almost in a hurry,under which they hadbeen found guilty andsentenced them to life im-prisonment. They werealso charged of Rs. 2.5crores.Usually, an accused iscalled in the witness boxwhere charges underwhich they have been

found guilty and havebeen acquitted are ex-plained to them alongwith all the legal remediesavailable to them, includ-ing approaching the highcourt and the judiciary'sability to provide themwith legal aid if they areunable to pay. The courtthen tells them their quan-tum of punishment inwhichever language theyunderstand. However, inthis case the judge simplyread out the charges. Left almost confused afterthe verdict the convictshuddled around theirlawyers asking them to'explain' what had justhappened. Only the Judge, court

staff, the convicts, and abattery of lawyers and po-lice personnel were al-lowed inside the court.There were restrictionson the number of mediapersonnel. Family mem-bers of the convicts weredenied entry into thecourtroom. After this the convicts,judge, court staff, the con-victs were allowed to leadevidence to show thatthey can be reformed.The prosecution, how-ever, sought capital pun-ishment for eight out ofthe 12 convicts callingthem "merchants ofdeath" and sought life im-prisonment for the otherfour.

5 Awarded Death; 7 Granted Life

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NIGHTMAREFOR COUPLESHELD IN MADHRAIDS NOTOVER YETPolice officers bom-bard each with callsasking them to recordstatements; threaten tosend letters home ifthey don't complyLearning nothing fromthe widespread criticismthey faced in August forrandomly rounding upcouples from some Madhisland hotels, the Mumbaicops have begun callingthe same men andwomen again.The couples have beenreceiving calls almostevery day and they arebeing told that a pre-scribed format for theirstatement is ready and allthey have to do is signthe paper.

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