Two Akshardham Temple attack convicts’ death penalty stayed

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Monday stayed the death sentence awarded to Adambhai Sulemanbhai Ajmeri and Abdul Kayum for the attack on Ahmedabad-located Akshardham Temple in 2002.

The third convict Sham Miyan alias Chand Khan, who too was awarded death sentence by a trial court in 2007, is yet to challenge his conviction.

An apex court bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar stayed the death sentence after senior counsel K.T.S. Tulsi, appearing for the convicts, pleaded for a stay of their death sentence.

The court also issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the plea of the petitioners seeking re-investigation of their case.

In the Akshardham attack case, one convict Mohammed Salim Hanif Sheikh was awarded life sentence and another convict Yasin Mian Qadri was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

All of them were tried by a special judge of a Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) court. They were convicted by the trial court July 1, 2007.

The Gujarat High Court upheld the punishment awarded to convicts by its order of June 1, 2010.

The petitioners told the apex court that the alleged confessional statement made by them was not “voluntary” but was extracted from them.

The petitioners were accused of hatching a conspiracy in the Middle East during the course of their employment in Saudi Arabia. They were accused of holding meetings and raising funds for funding terrorists activities in India.

Two terrorists, who stormed into the temple premises Sep 25, 2002, gunned down 33 people. Both the attackers - alleged members of Lashkar-e-Taiba - were killed in the subsequent operation by the security forces.

The court also issued notice to the Gujarat government on their petition seeking that their death sentence be quashed.