Aurangabad arms haul case: Jundal to challenge life imprisonment in HC

Mumbai, Aug. 2 (ANI): 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks suspect Abu Jundal, who was awarded life imprisonment in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case, will today appeal against the verdict in the Bombay High Court. Jundal's lawyer Asif Naqvi said that his client was not happy with the verdict. "He said there is nothing against him which directly connects to the said crime. We will appeal against the order before the High Court," Naqvi said. "There is a fine of Rs. 20,000 imposed by the court. Apart from this, there is a 26/11 case which is going on," he added. Besides Jundal, Mohammad Amir, Aqib, Bilal, Faisal, Afroz and Aslam were sentenced to life. Two convicts Afroz and Aslam were given 14 years imprisonment and three others Mushtaq, Afzal and Javed were awarded eight-year prison term. "All the accused will file an appeal against the judgement on August 5 once they receive the copy of the rulings," defence lawyer Wahab Khan told the media here. The Special MCOCA Court in Mumbai had earlier found Jundal and 11 others guilty in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case. The court said that this was a conspiracy after the 2002 Gujarat riots to eliminate the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) president Praveen Togadia. "Someone calling a government corrupt or unfit cannot be slapped with defamation prosecution," the court observed during the hearing. The court also said this was a larger conspiracy to strike terror and they (accused) were calling it 'jihad' On May 8, 2006, a Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) team chased a Tata Sumo and an Indica car on Chandwad-Manmad highway near Aurangabad and arrested three terror suspects and seized 30 kilogram of RDX, 10 AK-47 assault rifles and 3,200 bullets. Jundal, who hails from Beed district of Maharashtra, drove to Malegaon and a few days later he escaped to Bangladesh from where he fled to Pakistan, according to the state police. Earlier, the trial had been stayed by the Supreme Court after one of the accused had challenged the constitutional validity of certain provisions in the MCOCA invoked on the accused. The stay was lifted in 2009. In 2013, the ATS filed a chargesheet against all the accused for plotting various terror strikes since 2006. (ANI)