Delhi HC issues notice to NIA on terror convict's plea for concurrent sentences
Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 Feb, 2023 12:58 PM
New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Friday sought a response from the NIA on a plea by a convicted terrorist praying to make two sentences - one by Special Court in Greater Mumbai and the second by Delhi's Patiala House Court - run concurrent.
Mohsin Ibrahim Sayyed was convicted in January 2022 in the Malvani ISIS case on charges of trying to radicalise Muslim youths to join the Islamic State terror group in India and by the Patiala House Court last year in June for conspiracy to perform a terror strike during the Ardh Kumbh Mela at Haridwar.
He was sentenced to eight years imprisonment and seven years imprisonment by the Greater Mumbai court and Delhi court, respectively.
A single-judge bench of Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani issued a notice, returnable in six weeks to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sayyed's petition.
Sayyed's counsel informed the court that he is not challenging the petitioner's conviction and sentence by the Delhi court, but that his conviction and sentence of imprisonment by the Greater Mumbai was not brought to the notice of the Delhi court and hence a direction to run the two sentences together should be passed by this court.
"I am not impugning the special court's order. The fact of my previous conviction was not placed before the special court. I am seeking the High Court to invoke its power under Section 226 to do that which is not prohibited under the NIA Act. I am not challenging the mode it should be given in," counsel said.
However, NIA's counsel opposed the plea and argued that the petition is not maintainable.
The plea states that Sayyed, who voluntarily pleaded guilty with the intention of reforming himself, was an auto-rickshaw driver before his arrest and has to support his aged parents, wife, and two minor children.
"The petitioner is a young, poor, and illiterate man who, upon realising the error of his ways as a result of being misguided; voluntarily plead guilty to the charges framed against him, with the intention of reforming himself, attaining education, and becoming a productive member of society," his plea said.
It also said that courts ought to not ignore a circumstance where a convict is already serving a sentence of imprisonment, and should try to ensure that the totality of the sentences is correct, and argued that "a court can, even when substantive sentences of imprisonment have been imposed by courts in different trials/convictions, direct the concurrent running of such separate sentence".
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A Delhi Police team on Wednesday again visited the rented house, in south Delhi's Chhattarpur, of Aftab Ameen Poonawalla (28), who has been arrested for allegedly killing his live-in partner and chopping her body into 35 pieces for disposal. According to a senior police official, the police team, along with forensic teams, inspected the house again.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday interacted with several world leaders during the ongoing 17th G20 Summit in Bali, including US and French Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron, as well as his British counterpart Rishi Sunak. The Prime Minister's Office shared several photographs of his meetings with the world leaders.
For the second time on Tuesday morning, the police team took the accused Aftab Ameen Poonawala to the Mehrauli forest area to recover the remains of the body of Shraddha Walker which the accused chopped into 35 pieces. He was first taken to the area on Monday.
The body of a man, appearing to be in his early 30s, was found stuffed in a suitcase outside the railway station in Punjab's Jalandhar city on Tuesday, police said. The police reached the spot and found a red suitcase just outside railway station.
The bench noted that after its last orders in the matter, except two meetings of the Ghaggar Standing Committee, no concrete steps have been taken by the state governments on the recommendations made by the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS), Pune.
