2003 blasts: Convicts felt no remorse for deaths, judges observe

The Bombay high court on Friday upheld the death penalty awarded to Hanif Sayyed, Fehmida Sayyed and Ashrat Ansari for twin blasts in 2003, on the grounds that it was a ‘rarest of rare’ case.

A division bench comripsing justice AM Khanwilkar and justice PD Kode observed: “It falls under the category of the rarest of rare case. The acts committed by the accused were not an outcome of any momentary pulse of weakness of mind, but were committed out of a well-designed conspiracy.”

The court has accepted the arguments of the prosecution that both Sayyed and Ansari were members of terror outfit Lakshar-e-Toiba.

Even after a failed attempt to cause an explosion at MIDC, they continued to hatch a conspiracy for several other blasts, it said.

“They (convicts) must be dealt with sternly, considering our finding that the accused had not committed the offence under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance, but in a well-planned manner in furtherance of criminal conspiracy to destabilise the country by causing serial bomb blasts in a city like Mumbai. The acts were in retaliation to the Godhra incident,” it observed in a 480-page judgment.

Further, the judges observed that the accused felt no remorse after causing the death of over 50 people. The court refused to show an leniency to Fehmida, saying she was fully aware of her actions and had voluntarily accompanied her husband to plant the bomb.

“The gravity of the offence is enormous. Lashkar-e-Toiba had hatched the conspiracy in Dubai for taking revenge on atrocities on Muslims due to the… Godhra incident. Hanif (Sayyed) was trained to handle arms and ammunition before coming to India.”