The
Delhi High Court on November 22, acquitted two death
sentence convicts and commuted the capital punishment
to life imprisonment for another in Lajpat Nagar
(Delhi) bomb blast case (May 21, 1996), reports
The Hindu. It, however, upheld the life term
awarded to the fourth accused. All the four (alleged
Jammu & Kashmir Islamic Front-JKIF militants)
had been held guilty and sentenced by a lower court
in 2010.
A
Division Bench, comprising Justices S. Ravindra
Bhat and G.P. Mittal, said: “The nature of grave
prosecution lapses, in regard to various issues
such as lack of proof connecting some of the accused
with the bomb incident, failure to hold TIP [Test
Identification Parade] of articles and the accused,
… [and] not recording the statements of vital witnesses….
underline not only its lapses and inefficiencies,
but also throw up a question mark as to the nature
and truthfulness of the evidence produced.” |
