Petitions against death sentence: Supreme Court calls Indian spy counsel to pursue case

The Supreme Court on Monday directed its office to intimate to the counsel of an Indian spy to appear before it on Wednesday and pursue the case of his client. A three-member bench of the apex court, comprising Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Justice Mohammad Qaim Jan Khan and Justice Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery, is hearing the criminal review petitions of Manjeet Singh alias Sarbjeet Singh against his death sentence awarded for involvement in three bomb blasts in Pakistan.
On March 9, 2006 a two-member bench of the Supreme Court had dismissed a review petition of Manjeet Singh against his death penalty for his involvement in carrying out bomb blast at Yakki Gate, Lahore, in 1990.
Singh, a resident of Bhikiwand, Amritsar, was arrested on August 30, 1990, from the border area of Kasur. According to prosecution, Singh had confessed that he was trained by Indian Military Intelligence (IMI) and RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) to conduct multiple bomb blasts in Lahore, Kasur and Faisalabad in which 14 persons, including women and children, were killed, and 89 were wounded.
A Lahore anti-terrorism court sentenced him to death on October 3, 1991. Singh challenged his conviction in the Supreme Court, which on September 27, 2005, dismissed the petition as the appeal was time-barred by 620 days. His first review petition was dismissed, whereas his other three identical review petitions against sentences on different counts are pending in the apex court.
In the Yakki Gate case, the spy was accused of planting an explosive device near a fruit shop belonging to Mohammad Hanif that resulted in the death of three persons. In its detailed judgement upholding the death sentence, the apex court had held that the conviction awarded to the Indian spy was well deserved and did not warrant any leniency. Later, on March 6, 2008, Singh's clemency was rejected by President Pervez Musharraf.