Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh): All the nine accused in the murder of well-known theatre personality Safdar Hashmi and another CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) activist were today (Nov 9) awarded life imprisonment by a local court in Ghaziabad, 14 years after the gruesome killing when they were staging a street play.

Fourth Additional District Judge C D Rai awarded life sentence to Mukesh Sharma, an independent candidate in the Ghaziabad municipal elections, and his associates Devi Sharan Sharma, Jitender, Ram Avtar, Vinod, Yunus Ali, Tahir Hussein, Ramesh and Karan Singh under Section 302 (murder) of IPC for the killing of Hashmi and activist Ram Bahadur on New Year's day in 1989 in Jhandapur in Sahibabad.

Hashmi, a leading light of the left wing cultural outfit Jana Natya Manch, was enacting a play 'Halla Bol' along with wife Molayashree Hashmi in support of CPM candidate Ramnath Jha in Ghaziabad municipal elections in 1989 against Mukesh Sharma.

The judge, who observed that the case was "not one of the rarest of rare" but "symbolised criminalisation of politics", also six years' imprisonment to all the accused under various sections that covered rioting with deadly weapons, trespass, wrongful confinement and prosecution of common offence.

All the nine accused were present in the court to hear the judge pronounce the sentence. Yesterday (Nov 4), the judge had convicted them for the double murder.

PTI