Akshardham attack: Plea for relief rejected
New Delhi, July 5
The SC today rejected the compensation plea of six persons acquitted by it in the 2002 Akshardham terror attack case, observing that providing such relief would set a dangerous precedent.
On May 16, 2014, the Supreme Court had let off three death-row convicts and three other alleged terrorists, holding that there was no evidence for their involvement in the attack in which 33 people were killed and 85 injured in Gandhinagar on September 24, 2002.
“We are convinced the accused persons are innocent with respect to the charges levelled against them” under POTA 2002, a Bench comprising Justices AK Patnaik and V Gopala Gowda had said in a 281-page judgment. Both the trial court set up under POTA and the Gujarat High Court had ignored the “basic legal principles” under which equal weightage should be given to both defence and prosecution witnesses, the SC had ruled. — TNS
