Eight years after Pakistan-based militants hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814 to Kandahar and secured the release from Indian jails of three top militants including Maulana Masood Azhar, a designated court in Patiala today sentenced three persons to life in jail, holding them guilty of murder and conspiracy with the hijackers.

Judge Inderjit Singh convicted Abdul Latif, Dilip Kumar Bujhail and Bhupal Man Damai alias Yusuf Nepali under Section 4 of the Hijacking Act, 1982, and on charges of murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and wrongful confinement of passengers, forging documents.

Flight IC-814 was hijacked from Kathmandu on December 24, 1999 as it headed for New Delhi and flown to Kandahar in Afghanistan via Amritsar, Lahore and Dubai. The armed hijackers killed one of the passengers on board, Rupin Katyal, and fled with the released militants from Kandahar airport.

In his 269-page judgment, the judge said “the accused entered into criminal conspiracy with the hijackers. I find that the prosecution has cogent evidence on record to prove criminal conspiracy of the three with the hijackers”. He did not, however, award the death penalty, finding the case not to be the rarest of the rare.

The prosecution had sought capital punishment for Abdul Latif but defence counsels B S Sodhi and H V Rai pleaded for leniency.

“Accused Abdul Latif has not committed the murder himself or hijacked the aircraft. Only allegation against him is of criminal conspiracy and providing help to the hijackers. He is not the mastermind as per prosecution version of the criminal conspiracy. Therefore, in my view, the case does not fall under the rarest of the rare case,” the judge said.

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