Author: L. Renganathan
Publication: The Hindu
Date: October 8, 2003
URL: http://www.hindu.com/2003/10/08/stories/2003100806990400.htm
The fast track court-I here today
sentenced to life seven of 13 Al Umma activists, accused in the 1999 case
of murder of V. Sridhar, then president of the Tiruchi urban BJP unit,
and acquitted the others. Six of them were handed double life sentences,
to run concurrently.
While two of the acquitted persons
walked away to freedom, the others will continue to be incarcerated as
they are facing charges in some other cases.
Delivering the judgment in a packed
court, with the entire court campus swathed in security, the judge, A.
Solaimalai, found S. Zhakir Hussain (34) of Coimbatore; M. Moosa alias
TADA Moosa alias Syed Bai (31), D. Siddiq Ali alias Sultan (30), J. Sadiq
alias Khan alias Rahmatullah Khan (24), all three from Melapalayam, Tirunelveli;
B. Sheik Zinda Madar alias Jaffar alias Zinda (24) of Pattamadai (Tirunelveli)
and L. Ummar Farook alias Moideen Abdul Khader Bai (24) of Nagore guilty
of charges under Sections 302 (murder) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy)
of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced them to a double life term and a
fine of Rs. 2,000 each. They were also found guilty of charges under Section
148 (unlawful assembly with deadly weapons) for which a fine of Rs. 500
each was slapped separately.
Mr. Solaimalai found M. Shahjahan
(32) of Melapalayam guilty of offences under Section 109 (abetment) of
the IPC and sentenced him to life, besides a fine of Rs. 1,000 and another
Rs. 500 under Section 148.
The judge acquitted A. Syed Ali
alias Mulleli alias Mullan (27), S. Basheer Mohamed alias Mannennai Basheer
(22), S. Tamimul Anzari (23), K. Badusha (23), all belonging to Melapalayam,
A. Khaliloor Rahman (32) and I. Mohamed Farook (25), both of Tiruchi, for
want of sufficient proof. While Khaliloor Rahman and Mohamed Farook were
set free, the four others will continue to be behind bars, having been
arraigned in the Coimbatore serial bomb blasts case and bomb planting cases
in Chennai.
Among the convicted in the Sridhar
murder case, Zhakir Hussain, TADA Moosa, and Siddiq Ali have been accused
in the Coimbatore serial bomb blasts case, while J. Sadiq, Sheik Zinda
and Ummar Farook are accused in the Chennai bomb planting cases.
The prosecution is pursuing separately
the case against M. Samsudeen alias LIC Samsudeen (29) of Tiruchi, who
volunteered to become an approver only to turn hostile later during trial.
Dr. Sridhar was stabbed to death
near his house at Annamalai Nagar here on February 2, 1999. After the Woraiyur
police registered the case, it was transferred to the CB-CID, and then
the investigation was entrusted to a Special Investigation Team from June
25, 1999. The prosecution lined up 139 witnesses, of whom only 71 including
Dr. Sridhar's daughter, Lakshmi Priya, and the present principal district
judge, Thayarammal, who, as the chief judicial magistrate then, took the
tender of burden, deposed, while three witnesses turned hostile.
Coming out of the court, the convicts
shouted slogans saying they would not ``back off the battlefield even in
the face of harsher punishments''. They alleged that Muslims were being
persecuted in the country and instead of people like L.K. Advani (Deputy
Prime Minister) being arrested, jailing them amounted to nothing but betrayal.
All the acquitted persons went down
on their knees, just outside the courthall, to thank the Almighty.
