By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Jaipur (Rajasthan): A trial court in Dausa upheld its previous judgment of awarding the death penalty to Dr. Abdul Hameed, a convict in the 1996 bomb blast case, after reviewing its earlier pronounced punishment, as directed by the Rajasthan High court.
The blast had taken place on May 22, 1996 in a bus near Samleti village in Dausa on the Jaipur-Agra highway, killing 14 people and injuring 37 others. The bus was headed to Bikaner from Agra.
Additional District Judge Alka Bansal on Thursday upheld sentence awarded to Hameed on September 29 last year after considering the mitigating circumstances projected by him.
On September 29 last year, the Bandikui court had found seven accused guilty of committing bomb blast and on the same day had sentenced Hameed to death and others – Javed Khan (Srinagar), Abdul Ghani (Jammu), Latif Ahmed (Srinagar), Mohammad Ali Bhatt, Mirza Nisar Hussain and Rahish Baig from Agra – to life imprisonment.
Hameed then challenged the sentencing before Rajasthan High Court, which, on April 30, held that trial court erred in awarding death sentence to Hamid as he was not given chance to produce mitigating factors after finding him guilty.
“No opportunity was given to the accused to place relevant material before the trial court on the question of sentence. No opportunity was accorded to the accused Dr Abdul Hameed to project mitigating circumstances,” Justices Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia and Nisha Gupta had said while setting aside the sentence pronounced by trial court.
The high court in the end gave directions to the lower court to hear and review the case again. After completing the procedure, the lower court pronounced the judgment on Thursday.
“We respect the court’s order but we will pursue the case in the high court and the apex court, if needed. In the Akshardham Temple attack case (2002), the death sentence was upheld by the high court but was overturned by the Supreme Court,” said Hameed’s advocate Asad Hyatt to Indian Express.
“In this case, an appeal against conviction is pending in the high court and we will soon file an appeal against the sentencing as well in the high court,” he said. “Hameed, now over 50, has been in the jail for the past 20 years,” he said.