Red Fort attack case: SC affirms death penalty to Pakistani LeT terrorist

The Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed the death sentence of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant Mohammad Ashfaq Arif convicted of attacking an army barracks at Delhi’s Red Fort in December 2000. The top court, during the review petition, noted that the conviction and sentence do not warrant any intervention.

The attack at the Red Fort raised questions about the security situation. According to a report by PTI, then Defence Minister George Fernandes had then said that the Red Fort was not a high-security area and army battalions present inside were on a peace posting. The accused persons in the case were released by Delhi High Court in 2007.

‘Do not warrant any intervention’

The SC noted that the case of Arif doesn’t invite any intervention and thus upheld the earlier decisions. “We have accepted the prayers that electronic records must be placed in consideration. His guilt is proved. We affirm the view taken by this court and reject the review petition,” said the bench comprising Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi.

Journey from trial court to SC

Arif was given the death penalty by a Delhi trial court in 2005. Further, the Delhi high court confirmed the capital punishment for him in 2007, and later upheld by the top court in 2011. The SC earlier maintained the High court’s decision in 2011 after Arif made an appeal. After this, he filed a review and the curative petition that was dismissed in 2014. Two years later in 2016, SC decided to give him yet another chance to fight in wake of the 2014 constitutional bench judgment. The constitutional bench judgment in 2014 allowed “review petitions of condemned prisoners to be heard in open court.”

The Attack

On December 22, 2000, some intruders started indiscriminate firing, killing three security personnel who were guarding the Red Fort. The intruders as per the police were successful in escaping the bullet as well as arrest as they scaled over the rear side boundary wall of the Red Fort. On the basis of some “secret information,” the accused Arif was apprehended as per prosecution from Ghazipur on the intervening night of December 25-26, while he was entering the house of Farzana Farukhi, his divorcee sister-in-law, as per media reports.