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1997 Delhi blast case
Split verdict by SC on  Pak national facing death

NEW DELHI: A Division Bench of the Supreme Court today passed a split verdict on the plea of a Pakistani national challenging his conviction and death sentence awarded to him in the 1997 Delhi blast case.

While Justice H. L. Dattu was of the opinion that a fresh trial should be conducted in view that witnesses were not cross examined by the accused, the other judge, Justice C. K. Prasad, did not hold the same view.

In view of the split verdict, the matter has been referred to the Chief Justice.

Mohammad Hussain was convicted and sentenced to death in November 2004 by the trial court for his role in the 1997 Delhi blast case which had occurred in a blue line bus leaving four persons dead and 24 injured.

The trial court had termed the case as "rarest of rare" and had awarded death sentence to Hussain, a native of Jindrakhar village at Okara in Pakistan.

The high court had in August 2006 upheld the death sentence which was challenged by Hussain before the apex court.

On December 30, 1997, a bomb had exploded at Rampura near Punjabi Bagh in west Delhi in a Blue line bus. The blast left 28 people injured, of which four succumbed to injuries later in a hospital.

Hussain was arrested by the police on March 21, 1998. A city court had, however, discharged the other accused in the case — Abdul Rehman, Azhar Ahmed and Maqsood Ahmed — for want of evidence.

In 1997, the city was rocked by 22 serial blasts.

Another man Mohammed Amir Khan, accused of causing the two blasts at Karol Bagh, was earlier sentenced to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment in one blast case and life imprisonment for the other by another city court. — PTI

Shivani murder: Delhi police challenges R. K. Sharma's acquittal

NEW DELHI: The Delhi police today filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the acquittal of suspended IPS officer Ravi Kant Sharma and others in the journalist Shivani Bhatnagar murder case.

The police has filed the appeal against the October 12, 2011, verdict of the Delhi High Court acquitting R. K. Sharma and two others by giving them benefit of doubt.

The high court had only upheld the conviction of Pradeep Sharma, one of the four persons, found guilty by the trial court. Besides R. K. Sharma, others acquitted by the high court were Sri Bhawgan and Satya Prakash.

The high court had said although the motive behind the killing of the Indian Express scribe was unclear, it raised questions whether Pradeep Sharma acted alone or at the behest of R. K. Sharma and others or at the instance of someone else.

"These are questions which we cannot answer on the basis of the material before us. The quality of evidence before us is not of a high calibre," the high court had said, adding that the call records, the key document, were riddled with so many problems that it could not be relied upon.

The high court bench of Justices B. D. Ahmed and Manmohan Singh had said the prosecution has failed to establish the link between R. K. Sharma and the killer and even the crucial records relating to the call details were tampered with and could not be relied upon.

It said the prosecution failed to prove the motive behind the offence and the link between three co-accused, who were acquitted, and Pradeep Sharma, the man who killed the victim in her East Delhi flat on January 23 in 1999. — PTI