Wednesday, April 27 2005 17:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Dubai-based don Aftab Ansari and six others convicted in the January 22, 2002 terrorist attack on the American Centre in Kolkata were today (Apr 27, 2005) sentenced to death by a local court.

All the seven were given the death sentence under 121 of IPC i.e. waging war against the state and also under the Arms Act by Chief Judicial Magistrate Basudev Mazumdar.

The death sentence was subject to confirmation by the Calcutta High Court.

The six others sentenced along with Ansari were Jamiluddin Nasser, Rehan Alam, Adil Hasan, Musharat Hussain, Hasrat Alam and Shakir Aktar.

All seven were also sentenced to life imprisonment under section 302 (murder) of IPC and seven years under section 307 on the charge of attempt to murder.

They were also sentenced to five years and fined under the other charges against them.

The Magistrate, who arrived at the special court at 11:00 hours (IST) at the high security Presidency Jail took five and a half hours to pronounce judgement. He left for a brief period in the afternoon before returning.

The Magistrate before reading out the sentence asked the convicts if they had anything to say.

At this the convicts, who were represented by Syed S Imam and Abu Bakkar Dhali, claimed that they were innocent and as such they would not say anything more.

The court, however, acquitted two persons, Dilip Patel and Shakil Mallick, due to insufficient evidence against them yesterday.

Six others, including a Pakistani national Sadaqat, who figured in the attack, are still absconding. The others were Khurram Khayyam, Hasan Imam, Amir Raza Khan, Md Reyaz Hussain and Fayyaz Hussain.

The trial was conducted by a special court inside jail for security reasons after West Bengal Government prayed before the Calcutta High Court that it was risky to ferry Aftab from jail to court and back every time. Altogether 123 witnesses were examined during the trial, which began after the filing of chargesheet on April 26, 2002.

One of the attackers, Zahid Khan alias Idris, was killed in a police operation alongwith another Pakistani national, Salim, at Hazaribagh six days after the attack.

Aftab, who had called up a leading newspaper office in Kolkata on the day of the attack to claim responsibility, was arrested by the Dubai police at the airport minutes before he was to take a flight to Pakistani a day after the attack.

Aftab, alias Farhan Malik, reportedly had links with terrorist outfits Laskar-e-Tayeba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat-ul-Jehadi and was also accused in a conspiracy to blow up the Howrah Bridge and the Howrah railway terminal.

He is also the main accused in the kidnapping of shoe baron Partha Roy Burman in 2001.