Hyderabad blasts verdict: Terrorists show no repentance

Hyderabad: As the judge pronounced the death sentence on the five men convicted in the Dilsukhnagar bomb blast case on Monday, the convicts showed no emotion. “They showed no remorse or shock even after the entire procedure was over. They only asked for a copy of the judgement,” said one of the public prosecutors, Md Ismail.

No one from the families of the five was present in the special NIA court; jail sources said some of them had visited the jail two-and-a-half months ago. Curiously, their lawyers were not present either. Two of the men had lawyers paid for by the state while three others were represented by one lawyer.

On Monday morning, a team of security personnel escorted the five IM operatives to the specially set up courtroom, where the final arguments took place before the NIA judge.

“As per the court’s procedure, the prosecution presented their arguments and they sought capital punishment. The final arguments went on for a few hours. All this while, five of them sat there without expressing anger, fear or any other feelings,” said an eyewitness.

But the court had given them a chance to speak before reading out the judgment. “They said a few words as if they were ready to accept whatever pronouncement the judge would make,” said Mr Ismail.

After the judge pronounced the sentence, the five men requested for a copy of the judgement since their lawyer was not there to do it for them. “It seems they had already made plans to go to the High Court with an appeal. They had asked their lawyer to file a petition in the higher court,” said another source.

Defence to appeal in HC
All the accused in the blasts case, including Yasin Bhatkal, submitted letters to court alleging bias, unfairness and injustice by the National Investigation Agency. They pleaded with the court to consider evidence and counter arguments filed by their defence counsel.

On Monday, the defenCe counsel said that they would be approaching the High Court against the verdict. Defence lawyer Mahadevan said he had “received instructions to go in for an appeal”. He said they would be filing an appeal against the NIA court’s verdict in the High Court to get the judgement nullified.

“In their letter, they alleged bias, unfairness and injustice by the NIA. They also said that the NIA had not followed rule of law while probing the case. It’s not a surprise the verdict is the worst,” said Mr Mahadevan.  

During the argument, citing previous verdicts by higher courts, the defence counsel said the twin bomb blasts cases was not the “rarest of the rare cases” to give a death penalty. The arguments by the defence ran into 172 pages and relied on 128 Supreme court judgements. In their letter to the court, the IM operatives claimed they were confined to a small cell without proper food or fresh air.