Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Delhi High Court has upheld the lower court’s order to award death penalty to Lashkar-e-Toiba militant Mohammad Arif alias Ashfaq for his role in the attack on Red Fort in 2000.
Though the High Court absolved Ashfaq’s wife Rehmana Yusuf Farooqi of all charges in case, Ashfaq's death sentence was upheld.
"The court's verdict has given us partial justice. We would have been happier had justice been done to Ashfaq too,” says Rehmana.
The court said there was evidence to prove Ashfaq along with other Lashkar-e-Toiba militants had hatched a conspiracy to attack Red Fort. It held him guilty of killing three people and waging war against India.
"The police could never establish his link with Lashkar-e-Toiba but the judgement is voluminous. I cant say why death was given,” says Ashfaq's lawyer, R M Taufel.
Acquitting all the other accused, the high court said- "the prosecution has failed to complete the chain of circumstantial evidence and also not given any conclusive proof to substantiate the guilt of the other accused.”
"I am surprised at the order! How can you convict someone of conspiracy when you have acquitted all co- conspirators?” says Rehmana's lawyer, Kamini Jaiswal.
While Ashfaq's lawyer says they will file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the sentence, the prosecution is considering an appeal against the acquittal.
The prosecution had come to the HC with the hope of enhancing the sentence of the other accused but ended up getting flak for not doing its job.
Now the Supreme Court is their last option to prove that Ashfaq wasn’t the only one behind the Red Fort attack.
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