Delhi police on Friday wanted a court to award the maximum sentence of life imprisonment to six Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami men, including three Pakistanis, who were held guilty under tough anti-terror law POTA for plotting to kidnap cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly in 2002.
Delhi police on Friday wanted a court to award the maximum sentence of life imprisonment to six Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) men, including three Pakistanis, who were held guilty under tough anti-terror law POTA for plotting to kidnap cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly in 2002.
"The convicts conspired to kidnap Sachin Tendulkar for receiving funds and Saurav Ganguly to secure the release of their jailed associates. Besides, they planned to attack Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and assassinate APJ Abdul Kalam," public prosecutor Anita Hooda told additional sessions judge Pinki.
She sought life imprisonment for the convicts while aruging on behalf of Delhi police on the quantum on sentence to be awarded to them.
Her contention was, however, opposed by defence counsel who pleaded for a lenient view from the court saying that the Delhi high court had reduced the sentence of three of their associates, who pleaded guilty, to only eight years jail term.
The court, which heard the arguments, reserved the order till January 15.
The court had on December 24 held all six men guilty under the now-repealed Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and Indian Penal Code.
The convicts, who hailed from Pakistan, are Tariq Mohammed, Arshad Khan and Ashfaq Ahmed.
Besides them, three Indians -- Mufti Israr, Ghulam Qadir Bhatt and Ghulam Mohd Dar -- were also held guilty in the case.
"If they (convicts) had succeeded in their plot, they would have caused massive destruction to life and property," Hooda said.
She also referred to their acts, including collection of arms and ammunition, confessional statements, email transactions and disbursement of money to bring home the gravity of their offences.
The prosecutor submitted that the convicts wanted to secure release of two HuJI terrorists Nasarullah Langrial and Abdul Rahim who were then lodged in different jails here.
She alleged Rahim was an associate of Asif Raza Khan, an aide of Umar Sheikh who was released by Indian government along with others in exchange of hijacked Indian Airlines plane IC 814 in Afghanistan in 1999.
Arguing on behalf of convicts Ashfaq and Arshad, advocate MS Khan sought parity on the point of sentence saying the other convicts in the case were awarded only eight-year jail term.
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