LUCKNOW: A special NIA court of Lucknow on Tuesday awarded the death penalty to seven suspected Islamic State (ISIS) operatives and a life term to one in connection with the Kanpur terror conspiracy case.
The ‘self-radicalised’ convicts awarded the death sentence included Mohammad Faisal, Gaus Mohammad Khan, Mohammad Azhar, Atiq Muzaffer, Mohammad Danish, Mohammad Sayyed Meer Hussain and Asif Iqbal. One Mohammad Atif alias Asif Irani was given the lifer.
All eight operatives were arrested in Kanpur in 2017 in connection with planning terror acts. Delivering the sentence, Special NIA court judge VS Tripathi observed that the case fell in the rarest of rare category and the convicts were entitled to the severest punishment.
The FIR in the case was registered at ATS police station in Lucknow on March 8, 2017. In fact, ATS had got information about the plan of the members of the banned terror outfit ISIS to carry out blasts at different places across the country.
As per Public Prosecutor KK Sharma, all the seven convicts who were given death sentence were convicted under Section 121 (waging war against the country) of IPC along with charges under the UAPA Act.