The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction and award of life sentence to Hizbul-Mujahideen terrorist Mohd. Abub Dar under the anti-terror law for murdering popular Kashmiri religious leader Mirwaiz Moulvi Farooq ten years ago.
Dar was the only one among the five terrorists who faced trial for the murder of the Moulvi while two other accused died during the trial proceedings and two others were absconding. Moulvi was gunned down on the morning of May 21, 1990 at Srinagar after the militants barged into his house and pumped bullet into him.
The conspiracy was allegedly hatched by Dar, Abdul Rehman Shigan and Abdulla Bangroo (who died during trial), Javed Ahmed Bhat and Zahoor Ahmed — the two absconding terrorists — who could not be arrested.
A bench of Justices V.S. Sirpurkar and M.K. Sharma while dismissing the appeal of Dar against the special Tada court verdict in J&K finding him guilty under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987, held that the conviction of the accused based on a “confessional” statement was perfectly correct, “We are thoroughly convinced that this confession is not only a good, voluntary and truthful confession but a reliable one also and the trial Court has committed no mistake whatsoever in relying upon the said confession,” the bench said.
Even otherwise, “we are fully satisfied that the confession was indeed made by Dar and the details given in it and the meticulous planning that went behind the murder of Moulvi Farooq, has been reflected in his confession,” the apex court bench said.
The top court rejected his argument that allegation against him was only that of “conspiracy” and there were doubts about his conviction for murder under Section 302 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), equivalent to the Indian Penal Code, applicable in J&K.
“We do not think that such that such an argument can be made when Dar has taken part in the part in the conspiracy. The way he himself has worked in the success of the conspiracy, the way he has handled the guns and accompanied two other assailants to the house of Mirwaiz Farooq and the manner in which the plan was executed convince us that the order (of his conviction) is absolutely correct,” the to court ruled.
According to the prosecution, two terrorist organisations — Hizbul-Mujahideen and Jamat-e-Islami — were “apprehensive” of Moulvi Farooq, a generally perceived moderate leader, to take over the leadership of Kashmir; and they had hatched a conspiracy to eliminate him.
Mirwaiz Moulvi Farooq was the father of Mirwize Umar Farooq, know as one of the separatist leaders of the Hurriat Conference.