Omar IC-814 Sheikh’s colleagues won’t hang

While declining to show any leniency on that account, the Supreme Court nevertheless commuted the death sentence on three Pakistanis—Nazir Khan, Abdul Rahim and Naseer Mahmood Sodozey—to a sentence of 20 years.

A bench comprising Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Justice Arijit Pasayat made it clear that they would not be entitled to any remission of prison term.

Besides imposing the death sentence on the three Pakistanis, a TADA court in Delhi last year had pronounced life sentence (which generally runs to 14 years) on three others in connection with the kidnapping of the four foreign nationals and killing of a police official.

The apex court today upheld the life sentence on those persons, including one Pakistani and one Bangladeshi.

Sheikh, who is a British national and a former student of the London School of Economics, had plotted and executed the kidnapping of the four foreign nationals from Delhi in 1994 in a failed bid to secure the release from jail of Maulana Masood Azhar.

Ironically, five years later, the Government flew out both Sheikh and Azhar to Kandahar in the then Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in exchange for the passengers and crew of IC 814.

In the post 9/11 scenario, Sheikh gained international notoriety as he was convicted of kidnapping and murdering US journalist Daniel Pearl. In July 2002, a Pakistani trial court awarded death sentence to him as the prime accused in the case while three co-accused were given life terms.

At the time of his conviction, Sheikh made a veiled attack on President Musharraf in a written statement: ‘‘We’ll see who will die first, me or the authorities who have arranged the death sentence for me.’’

He has since been on death row in Pakistan pending confirmation by higher courts.

Today’s judgment, delivered by Justice Pasayat, pointed out that ‘‘the mastermind of the whole conspiracy’’ behind the 1994 kidnappings in Delhi was allowed to ‘‘escape the net of law.’’ But the judge added that ‘‘the legitimacy of such action is not the subject matter of consideration in this case, though it has raised many eyebrows.’’

Referring to the attempts of the convicted terrorists to take advantage of Sheikh’s release in 1999, Pasayat said they pleaded that they had ‘‘become victims of unintended circumstances while the mastermind and kingpin has gone out mocking at the security network.’’

Rejecting their plea, the bench said ‘‘this case does not seek to find out an answer to such questions and therefore we are not dealing with them.’’ But, considering that the offence under Section 364A (kidnapping to compel the Government) was primarily committed by Sheikh, it said, ‘‘In his case, death sentence may have been appropriate.’’

The three Pakistanis who have been given a sentence of 20 years are Nazir Khan, Abdul Rahim and Naseer Mahmood Sodozey.