Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 24: After 19 years of investigation and trial, Special Judge NIA Jammu Ashwani Sharma awarded life-imprisonment to three Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of HM outfit namely Majid Ali Sheikh, Shah Nawaz and Majid Amin in terror funding case.
According to the police case, on 28.12.2004 the accused were caught red handed by the naka party of Army Intelligence and SOG of J&K Police near village Tarore, Bari Brahmana on the basis of specific information and a sum of Rs 9,38,000 was recovered from the vehicle bearing registration No. JK02J-1505 in which the accused were travelling from Delhi to Jammu.
The money was terrorist funds collected by the accused persons from one Javed Ahmed Wani of Doda and was to be delivered by the convicts to the militant of banned outfit HM namely Masood Ahmed for enhancing the terrorist activities in Doda.
After hearing APP Anil Magotra for the UT whereas Advocate Rajinder Singh Jamwal for the accused person, Special Judge NIA observed, “on the existence of aggregating and mitigating circumstances the evaluation thereof, this courts comes to the conclusion that the aggravating circumstances are much grave and serious than the mitigating circumstances, as such, in the considered opinion of the court the convicts does not deserve any leniency while imposing the sentence upon them”.
“The aggravating circumstances in the present case outweigh the mitigating circumstances because the accused are involved in the commission of offence under the provisions of Unlawful Activities Act for commission of terrorist activities, by raising/collecting funds and providing the same to the members of banned terrorist HM”, the court said, adding “the terrorist act can destabilize Governments, undermine civil society, jeopardize peace, and security, threaten economic and social development and may especially negatively affect certain groups”.
“It disrupts livelihoods, increase violence and fear, affects production of all sectors of economy, destroy infrastructure and has resulted in bloodshed. In all cases of terrorist attack normal life is disrupted, production in the economy is stalled besides the efforts to provide peace and security”, the court said, adding “undue sympathy to impose inadequate sentence would do more harm to the just system to undermine the public confidence in the efficacy of law and society could not long endure under such serious threats. Just punishment is the collective cry of the society”.
Accordingly, the accused were awarded rigorous imprisonment for life and with fine in the sum of Rs. 10,000 each for commission of offence under Section 17 UA(P) Act and further sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life with fine in the sum of Rs 10,000 each for commission of offence under Section 21 UA(P) Act. Both the punishments shall run concurrently.
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