CALCUTTA, 28 April 2005 — An Indian judge sentenced to death yesterday seven Muslims for allegedly gunning down five policemen outside Calcutta’s American cultural center in January 2002.
The controversial verdict after a lengthy trial elicited a mixed response in police and legal circles in the capital of communist-ruled West Bengal province.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Basudev Majumdar convicted Aftab Ansari, the alleged mastermind, and his six accomplices on Tuesday in a special court inside a high-security prison.
Yesterday, Majumdar — who took nearly six hours to read out the 500-page judgment in the packed courtroom — ruled that the convicted persons must be hanged for “waging war against the legally constituted government of India”, murder and several other criminal offenses including illegal possession of automatic weapons.
Before awarding capital punishment, the judge asked the convicted persons if they had anything to say. They stood with their heads bowed but defense lawyers Syed Shahid Imam and Abu Bakkar Dhali replied that they had nothing to say as they were innocent.
The seven condemned to death are Aftab Ansari alias Farhan Mallik, Jamiluddin Nasser, Rehan Alam, Adil Hasan, Musharat Hussain, Hasrat Alam and Shakir Aktar.
The court acquitted two persons, Dilip Patel and Shakil Mallik, due to lack of evidence while convicting seven on Tuesday.
Six others, including an alleged Pakistani national, Sadaqat, who reportedly had a role in the sensational attack, are still absconding.
One of the attackers, Zahid Khan alias Idris, was reportedly killed in a police operation, at Hazaribagh in Jharkhand six days after the attack. But as per Indian law, the convicts cannot be hanged unless the Calcutta High Court ratifies Majumdar’s judgment.
Vehemently criticizing the verdict, Imam said that his clients would fight for justice in the high court and the Supreme Court of India, if necessary.
On Jan. 22, 2002 two motorcyclists shot dead five policemen guarding the American Center in Calcutta. The killers were never caught but Ansari was deported to India to stand trial after he reportedly telephoned a newspaper office and a police officer saying that he had carried out the attack to avenge a friend’s cold-blooded murder by policemen.
India had then accused Pakistan of masterminding what it called a “terrorist attack” but Islamabad brushed aside the charge. The attack heightened tensions in South Asia as it came close on the heels of a bloody attack on India’s Parliament.
