2003 Mumbai Blasts

2003 Mumbai blasts: Prosecution demands death sentence

A special POTA court on Tuesday deferred till August 6 its ruling on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to three convicts in the 2003 serial bomb blasts case after the prosecution demanded the death penalty saying the accused were responsible for killing 54 persons and injuring 244 others.

Among the convicts, a married couple, Hanif Sayed Anees and his wife Fahmida, asked for lenient punishment while another convict Arshat Ansari said he was not guilty of the crime and the verdict was not acceptable to him.

The trio were held guilty of planting two bombs that exploded at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar on August 25, 2003, claiming 52 lives and injuring 244. They had also planted a bomb on July 28, 2003 in a municipal bus in suburban Ghatkopar which killed two persons. This is for the first time a couple have been found guilty of terror acts under POTA.

As much as I would want to show leniency to the couple because there is a woman, I cannot get myself to avoid asking death penalty for them.
They knew what they were doing was heinous.
54 people were killed.
All three should be given death penalty without recourse to appeal to the President.
We have had sufficient politics on Afzal Begs petition to the President.
What signal does the delay in execution of death penalty give to terrorists?
They think India is a soft state
Then why do we express shock when Pakistan frees Saeed.
As it is, India too would have freed him or exchanged him to other woman in Kashmir in a got up kidnap drama.