The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the response of the Delhi government to the curative petition filed by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist and Pakistani national Mohd Arif challenging the death sentence awarded to him for attacking Red Fort and killing three jawans of the unit 7 of Rajputana Rifles of the Indian Army in 2000 [Mohd Arif @ Ashfaq vs State NCT of Delhi].
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Vikram Nath and JK Maheshwari heard the curative petition in open court today and issued notice to the Delhi government.
In November 2022, a three-judge bench led by then CJI UU Lalit had dismissed the review petition filed by Arif and upheld his death penalty.
The Court had then noted that the aggravating circumstances warrantijng death sentence to the accused outweighed the mitigating circumstances.
According to the prosecution, on the night of December 22, 2000 some intruders entered the area where the Unit of 7 Rajputana Rifles of the Indian Army was stationed inside the Red Fort, New Delhi. In the firing that was opened by the intruders, three Army jawans lost their lives.
The intruders fled the sport by scaling the rear-side boundary wall of the Red Fort.
Arif was later arrested and tried for offences under the Indian Penal Code, Arms Act, Foreigners Act and Explosive Substances Act.
He convicted and sentenced to death by a sessions court in Delhi on October 31, 2005.
The same was confirmed by the Delhi High Court on September 13, 2007 and by the Supreme Court on August 10, 2011.
Arif then filed a petition challenging the confirmation order of the Supreme Court on the ground that it was decided by a division bench and his appeal should have had been heard by a three judge bench.
The initial review and curative petitions were dismissed by another division bench. However, on September 2, 2014 a Constitution bench of the apex court held that all death sentence confirmation matters must be heard by a three-judge bench.
Based on this judgment, Arif once again sought a review of the division bench's orders confirming his death sentence.
His review plea then came up before the three-judge Bench headed by CJI Lalit.
Arif argued before CJI Lalit's Bench that the Division Bench which confirmed his death penalty erred in considering the call data records (CDRs) under Section 65 B of the Evidence Act.
However, the three-judge Bench held that the other circumstances on record clearly proved beyond any doubt, the involvement of the petitioner in the crime.
As far as the contention of Arif that the mitigating circumstances were not considered properly, the three-judge bench noted that he being a Pakistani national, was convicted for waging a war against the country and also murdered army personnel.
With these observations, the bench dismissed his review petition.
This verdict has now been challenged by way of curative petition.
[Read Review Judgment]
[Read live coverage of today's hearing]