SC commutes death sentence of two convicted in Kolkata attack

, May 21: The

on Wednesday commuted the death sentence of two men convicted for the 2002 attack on the American Center in Kolkata.

The apex court has given lifetime imprisonment to one of the two convicts, Aftab Ahmed Ansariand and the other, Mohd. Jamiluddin, has been ordered to be in jail for 30 years without remission. Ansari and Nasir had approached the Supreme Court against their death sentence.

On January 22, 2002, two motorcycle-borne men had shot at policemen outside the American Center on Jawaharlal Nehru Road in Kolkata, killing six of them and injuring 14 others.

Ansari was arrested from Dubai and was brought to India on February 9, 2002. He was part of the terror outfit Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF) that reportedly had links with the Harkat-ul-Jehadi-e-Islam.

A session court had in April 2005 sentenced Ansari, Nasir and three others to death while acquitting two others. Five years later in February 2010, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court upheld the death sentence of Ansari and Nasir. It commuted the death sentence awarded to three others and reduced it to seven years' imprisonment.

It was the statements given by two men who were injured in an encounter with a Delhi Police team in Jharkhand, which led to the arrest of the two.

Oneindia News