Quoting Dostoevsky, HC reduces sentence of 5 men accused of aiding JeM

The bench further said, “We refer to a quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the author of ‘Crime and Punishment’… Dostoevsky writes that ‘if he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake…”

The men had been booked under Section 121A IPC, which refers to conspiring to commit offence under Section 121 or conspiring to overawe by using criminal force the Central government/any state government.

As per the chargesheet and a September 2022 order on charge, the five men were accused of “allegedly assisting JeM operatives and were involved in recruiting others for propagating and supporting the cause of JeM”.

The five men – Bilal Ahmad Mir, Sajjad Ahmad Khan, Muzzaffar Ahmad Bhat, Mehraj Ud Din Chopan and Ishfaq Ahmad Bhatt – had pleaded guilty before the trial court to the offences lodged against them under IPC and UAPA, and were convicted. In November 2022 the trial court had sentenced them to life imprisonment, pursuant to which they moved the HC challenging the quantum of sentence.

While observing that the gravity of the offence cannot be undermined, the bench, however, said that there is “no charge that they (appellants) had committed any terror act” and had been held “guilty primarily for conspiring and not for committing any terror act as such”.

The bench further observed that the trial court had not given “any specific reason” for awarding the maximum punishment and got “swayed by the enormity of allegations” without giving importance to remorse admitted by the appellants.