Yasin Bhatkal, 4 others get death penalty for Hyderabad blasts

A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Decemebr 19 sentenced to death banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) founder Yasin Bhatkal and four others for orchestrating the February 2013 Hyderabad blasts that killed 18 people and injured 131.

This is the first case in which any operative of the home-grown terror outfit, IM, has been convicted. The court convicted Yasin Bhatkal and others under various sections of Indian Penal Code, Arms Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

On November 7, the final arguments had concluded in the case before the NIA special court. And, the court had on December 13 convicted the five operatives—IM co-founder Mohammed Ahmed Sidibapa alias Yasin Bhatkal, Pakistani national Zia-ur-Rahman alias Waqas, Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi, Tahaseen Akhtar alias Monu and Ajaz Shaikh, who are at present in judicial custody and lodged in the Cherlapally Central Prison in Hyderabad.

However, the prime accused in the case—Yasin’s brother Riyaz Bhatkal alias Shah Riyaz Ahmad Mohammed Ismail Shahbandari—is on the run and is said to be in Pakistan.

It has to be seen now whether the debate over death penalty will raise its head again in the backdrop of the NIA court judgement. When the 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Abdul Razak Memon was sentenced to death last year, there was a big debate over commuting the terrorist’s death penalty sentence. Even former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi had then written to President Pranab Mukherjee to “reconsider the rejection of Yakub Memon’s mercy plea” by invoking former President APJ Abdul Kalam's opposition to the death penalty.

With PTI inputs.