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".
Meanwhile, according to sources in the know of things, Tharoor, who got 16 members from Kerala to put their signature in his nomination form, has managed to secure 130 votes out of the 297 votes from his home state, which is a very tall figure given the fact practically all the bigwigs from Kerala stood rock stock and barrel for Malikarjuna Kharge, who beat Tharoor by a mile.
"This is a revolutionary step aimed at supplementing the income of the farmers to bail them out from the agrarian crisis," he said after inaugurating Verka's newly-built milk processing and butter plant here. The Chief Minister said that the state government has inked an agreement with the Delhi government in this regard.
Five grenades and two automatic pistols were also recovered from the possession of Deepak alias Teenu, a resident of Haryana's Bhiwani. Police said that Deepak, a member of Lawrence Bishnoi-Kala Jathedi-Sampat Nehra gang
"During investigation, the Rajasthan Police's Crime Branch nabbed three accused, who had also demanded a ransom from the victims' families," said a senior police official. "On sustained interrogation, the accused confessed to having killed the children and dumping the bodies in a jungle behind Qutub Minar metro station," he said.
Aviation regulator DGCA has launched a probe into the Kedarnath helicopter crash in which seven people, including the pilot, were killed on Tuesday. The helicopter, carrying pilgrims, crashed after takeoff from the Kedarnath shrine near Garud Chatti in Rudraprayag at around 11.40 a.m.
Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the Gujarat government affidavit "proves beyond a shadow of doubt that the release was a political decision made with not just the knowledge but the concurrence of those in the highest echelons of power in the Modi government".
