Defence cites Srikrishna report to secure lesser punishment

Mumbai, Dec 12 (UNI) The Defence today again urged TADA court to take cognizance of the findings of the Srikirshna Commission report while deciding the quantum of punishment fr those convicted in the 1993 serial bomb blasts in the city, notwithstanding the opposition by the CBI.

However, CBI counsel Ujwal Nikam reiterated that no court can take cognizance of the report under section 6 of the Commission of Inquiry Act under which the Srikrishna Commission was set up. He aruged that the Commission's findings are purely recommendatory in nature, are not enforceable and have no evidentiary value. The mere fact of the report being a public document can not make it admissible in a court of law, he added. Nikam, the special public prosecutor, said the court can not look at the report at this stage when it has already pronounced orders on convictions and acquittals in the case.

Out of 123 accused who faced trial in the case, 100 were convicted and 23 acquitted.

Defence counsel Harshad Ponda said he was relying on the findings of the Commission's report only to the extent of focussing on the circumstances which drove the convicts to do what they did and to urge the court to award sentence taking into consideration the circumtances which led to their involvement in the crime.

Ponda said many of the accused were forced or induced into the crime in the background of riots which preceded the 1993 multiple blasts. Citing the findings of the Srikrishna report to focus on the circumstances which led to the blasts, Ponda said during the riots that followed the demolition of Babri masjid in December, 1992, police did not intervene to protect people of the minority community and that the report clearly states the police actively took an anti-minority stand and did not even register their complaints.

Pleading for 5 of the 100 convicts in the case, the defence lawyer said one Issaq Hajwani and his son Sikandar and Shah Nawaz Hajwani, all residents of Sandheri village in Raigad district, underwent arms training but did not make use of it. They could have undergone the training as a self-defence measure, he argued and, therefore, deserved minimum punishment on the charge of aiding and abetting terrorism under section 3(3) of TADA (P) Act. The minimun punishment under which is 5 years and maximum life imprisionment.

Similarly, Ponda said, Mujib Parkar merely sold empty gunny bags in which the deadly RDX explosive had been stuffed for transportation and hence should also be given minimum punishment under the Act. He pleaded for release of his father, Sharief Parkar, on the ground that he is an old man in his seventies and had already spent over 13 years in jail.

Defence concluded the arguments in respect of five convicts today, but CBI said they would put forth their arguments only after defence concludes its arguments with respect to all the 100 convicts.

UNI XR SA AKJ KN2041