SC-ANSARI 2LST

Two motorcycle-borne men had indiscriminately fired
with a AK-47 assault rifle at policemen outside the American
Centre on Jawaharlal Nehru Road early in the morning of
January 22, 2002 killing six of them and injuring 14 others.
A division bench of the Calcutta High Court had in
February 2010 upheld the death sentence of Ansari along with
co-accused Jamiluddin Nasir but commuted the capital
punishment awarded to three others to seven years imprisonment
after a hearing lasting 77 days.
Earlier this month, the apex court had stayed the death
sentence awarded to Nasir.
The sessions court in April 2005 had sentenced Ansari,
Nasir and three others to death while acquitting two others.
They were charged with sections 121 (waging war against
the state), 121-A (conspiracy), 302 and 9 (murder) and 307
(attempt to murder) of the IPC and 27(3) of the Arms Act.
Just four days after the attack, two persons -- Salim
and Zahid -- were injured in an encounter with a Delhi police
team in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand state in east India and they
subsequently died. The police had come to know about the
involvement of Ansari in the American Centre attack from their
dying declarations.
Ansari was arrested from Dubai thereafter and was
deported to India on February 9, 2002 to face trial. He was
part of terror outfit Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF) that
reportedly had links with Harkat-ul-Jehadi-e-Islam.
Ansari used to run extortion and abduction rings in India
and had set up bases in Kolkata, Agra, Mumbai, Malegaon and
Surat.
The prosecution had examined 126 persons in the case to
bring charges against Ansari and others. PTI