NEW DELHI, Oct 25: A Delhi court today awarded 12-year-jail terms to two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) terrorists and 10-year-terms to two other members of the outfit for conspiring to commit terror activities and arranging funds for those acts, saying “they had hatched a conspiracy to strike at the core of this nation”.
Observing that the terror funding has to be kept in the same category as that of actual terror acts if not in a higher category, Special Judge Parveen Singh awarded 12-year jail terms to Mohd. Shafi Shah and Muzzafar Ahmad Dar and 10-year-jail terms to Talib Lali and Mushtaq Ahmad Lone.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000, Rs 65,000, Rs 55,000, and Rs 45,000 on Shah, Dar, Lali, and Lone respectively.
While punishing Shah, who was the divisional commander of HM, the court said “the crime for which the convict has been found guilty is an act of treason and there can be no greater crime which affects the social order than this crime.”
All the four accused had pleaded guilty to all the charges levelled against them on September 27, and following that, were convicted on October 4.
While Shah and Lali were residents of Bandipora district in Jammu and Kashmir, Dar and Lone hailed from Budgam and Anantnag districts respectively.
The case was lodged by the NIA with allegations that HM had been regularly receiving funds originating from neighbouring countries for carrying out terrorist activities in India and that in the garb of an organization Jammu Kashmir Affectees Relief Trust (JKART), the HM was actively involved in furthering the terrorist activities.
All the four were convicted for the offences under Sections 17 (raising funds for the terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy to commit terrorist act), 20 (being a member of terrorist gang or organisation), 40 (offence related to raising funds for a terrorist organisation) and 38 (offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation) of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). (PTI)
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