Declaring the unprovoked attack by Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Arif, alias Ashfaq, in winter of 2000 on the Red Fort, the Supreme Court on Wednesday confirmed the death sentence to him by hanging as per the provisions of
Indian Penal Code for such dastardly strike killing three security personnel.
Dismissing his appeal against capital punishment, a bench of Justices V.S. Sirpurkar and T.S. Thakur said Ashfaq, a Pakistani national entered India without any “authorisation and justification” and once he was in, he built a “conspiracy practising deceit and committing various other offences in furtherance of his plan to wage a war against India by launching an unprovoked attack on soldiers of the Indian Army” in the precincts of the Red Fort.
“In fact, this is a unique case where there is one most aggravating circumstance that it was a direct attack on the unity, integrity and sovereignty of India by foreigners. Thus, it was an attack on the Mother India,” said Justice Sirpurkar, writing a 87-page verdict for the bench dealing various ticklish issues about the involvement of a Pakistani terrorist in one of the most dastardly attack on the “nerve centre” of Indian state.
“We therefore, have no doubts that death sentence was the only sentence in the peculiar circumstance of this case. We, confirm the judgement of the trial court and the Delhi HC convicting the accused and awarding him death sentence for the offences under Section 302 of the IPC,” the apex court ruled. The top court also confirmed all the other related sentences warded to the convict under Arms Act, Indian Telegraph Act for using Indian telephone network for executing his plan, creating fake documents and several other crimes.