Pakistan terrorist planted bombs: SC

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, July 2

The Supreme Court has held Pakistani terrorist Ghulam Nabi Guide responsible for the explosion of three powerful bombs at Jammu’s Maulana Azad Memorial Stadium in 1995 when then Governor, General KV Krishna Rao, was addressing a gathering of about 40,000 people on the occasion of Republic Day.

Eight persons were killed and 18 injured in the explosions on January 26, but the Governor escaped the assassination bid. One of the bombs had been planted near the dais.

A designated trial court set up under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987, acquitted Guide on technical grounds on March 2, 2009, and his co-accused Wasim Ahmed Malik for want of evidence. The third accused, Mohammed Irfan, could not be tried as he had escaped from jail.

The trial court had found fault with the recording of Guide’s confessional statement in Hindi, instead of his mother tongue Urdu, by a CBI officer who normally used English for official work. The Jammu and Kashmir Government had moved the Supreme Court, challenging the acquittals.

According to the CBI, Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had trained both Guide and Malik at ISI’s Sialkot office for planting the bombs at the stadium.

In its judgement yesterday, the apex court Bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and UU Lalit held that there was nothing wrong in recording Guide’s confessional statement in Hindi and as such, it was sufficient to convict the accused under TADA without any corroboration by other evidence.

“We have gone through the contents of the confession which clearly admitted the guilt of the confessing accused and his involvement right from the hatching of the conspiracy to the execution thereof.

“The confessing accused had spoken about various stages since the conspiracy was hatched and how the confessing accused had helped in transporting the explosive material from across the border and then placed it in the pits dug inside the stadium and on the main road outside the stadium.

“The consequential explosion of the bombs which was timed with the celebrations on account of Republic Day was definitely designed to disrupt the celebrations and terrorise the people in general and those who had gathered at the time of celebration in particular,” the Bench ruled.

The apex court would decide the quantum of punishment to Guide after hearing arguments by the CBI and Guide’s counsel. For this purpose, the Bench issued a notice to Guide and asked the authorities to produce him in court.

Upholding the acquittal of Malik, the SC noted that the accused had refused to make a confessional statement and the only evidence against him was Guide’s statement which could not be relied upon in the absence of corroboration.