Abu Jundal, 6 others get life imprisonment in Aurangabad arms haul case

The Special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Tuesday awarded life imprisonment to seven persons, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative and 26/11 plotter Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case.

Two others have been sentenced to 14 years' rigorous imprisonment and three with eight years' imprisonment. The court observed that the accused were remorseless.

On July 28, the court had acquitted eight persons and convicted 12 accused and dropped the MCOCA section from the case.

The six others are Mohammed Ameer Shakil Ahmed Shaikh, Bilal Ahmed Abdul Razaq, Sayyed Aakif Sayyed Zafaruddin, Afroz Khan Shahid Khan Pathan, Faizal Ataur Rehman Shaikh and Mohammed Aslam Kashmiri.

While Mohammed Mujaffar Mohammed Tanvir and Dr Mohammed Sharif Shabbir Ahmed have been awarded 14 years' rigorous imprisonment, Musthaq Ahmed Mohammed Ishak Shaikh, Afzal Khan Nabi Khan and Javed Ahmed Abdul Majeed Ansari got eight years' imprisonment.

"Since Mushtaq, Afzal and Javed have already spent the required eight years in jail during their trial, they will not have to spend any more time in jail," said defence advocate Wahab Khan.

While Mohammed Ameer Shakil Ahmed Shaikh has been fined Rs 25,000, others were fined Rs 20,000 each. If the convicts fail to pay the fine, they will be jailed one more year.

Prosecution lawyer Vaibhav Bagade said that the court was of the view that if the arms and ammunition were used by the accused, it would have created havoc in the state. "We honour the judgment and it has given a sense of security to the people," he said.

The court delivered the sentence under Sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Explosives Act, Explosive Substance Act and the Indian Penal Code.

"We will challenge the verdict in the higher court, once we get the judgment copy," advocate Khan said. Lawyer Asif Naqvi, who has been appearing for Jundal since 2012, told dna: "After the court pronounced the quantum of punishment, my client was absolutely shocked. He was not expecting a life imprisonment. My client has been maintaining from the beginning that he was being framed as the police could not apprehend the real culprits."

"Even after pleading with the jail authorities several times to change the location of the cell, my client was forcibly kept inside the cell where Ajmal Kasab was lodged. The prosecution has not yet presented any strong or crucial evidence and the quantum has been delivered on the basis of circumstantial evidences. We are surely moving the high court for relief, but, for now, the biggest relief is that the court has dropped MCOCA from the case," Naqvi added.

ACP Sunil Deshmukh, who investigated case while serving at the state ATS, said: "The quantum of punishment is balanced and justified. After getting the information, we nabbed the ammunition and realised that Jundal was involved. These 10 years were difficult for the police and the ATS to produce, check and present the related evidence in front of the court."

What is the case?

On May 8, 2006, a Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) team chased a Tata Sumo and an Indica car on the Chandwad-Manmad highway near Aurangabad and arrested three terror suspects and seized 30kg of RDX, 10 AK-47 assault rifles and 3,200 bullets. Jundal, allegedly driving the Indica, gave the police the slip. Later, more arms and explosives were seized.