Rai's aide, East-West employee get five years

A designated TADA court sentenced former federal minister Kalpnath Rai's aide S P Rai and East-West Airlines executive Sabu Chacko to five years' rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the private airline for harbouring hitmen of the notorious Dawood Ibrahim gang.

The three accused, along with former Congress leader and six terrorists of the Dawood gang, were convicted on Monday by the designated court of Additional Sessions Judge Shiv Narain Dhingra in a Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act case.

With today's hearing, judgment against all but one accused - former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Saran Singh's private secretary Sanjay Singh - have been pronounced in the case.

Sanjay Singh has been absconding since the CBI filed the chargesheet in the case.

Dhingra, besides awarding five years' rigorous imprisonment to S P Rai, also imposed a fine of Rs 500. In case of default, he would have to undergo a week's additional imprisonment.

Sabu Chacko was ordered to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years and pay a penalty of Rs 10,000. He would have to be in jail for an extra period of one month if he fails to furnish the penalty.

The East-West Airlines, which has been represented by one of its director, Pir Mohammed, was asked to pay Rs 50,000 through a bank draft within a month. In case of failure to submit the amount within the stipulated period, all movable and immovable properties of the company would be attached, the court ruled.

Dhingra had, on Monday, ordered Mohammed Ahmed Mansoor, the sixth hitman of the Dawood group involved in the crime, to undergo life imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 1.5 million for his direct involvement in anti-national activities.

He will have to face an extra jail period of three years if he fails to submit the fine.

S P Rai, Sabu Chacko and the East-West Airlines, along with Kalpnath Rai, were charged with harbouring terrorists of underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim after the infamous J J Hospital shootout in Bombay in 1992.

The court had on Monday acquitted the BJP MP for lack of evidence.

Kalpnath Rai and five hitmen of the Dawood group were ordered to undergo rigorous imprisonment by Dhingra on Monday.

As soon as the judgment was delivered, Tihar Jail authorities took Sabu Chacko and S P Rai in their custody. They were later taken to the central jail where the other nine convicts are lodged.

The designated court, after hearing the arguments of the counsel for the East-West Airlines, Sukumaran Nair, and public prosecutors N K Sharma and S S Rathi had reserved its orders in the morning.

Nair pleaded mercy for his clients on the grounds that neither the company nor Sabu Chacko were in a position to pose any threat to the society, which is the prime consideration before deciding on the punishment in any case.

He said the company only existed on paper and it was very unlikely that it would pose any threat to the society in the future.

About Sabu Chakco, the counsel contended that he extended some help to the culprit without the knowledge that he (the hitman) was going to perpetuate the crime.

''Sabu neither was a threat to the society at the time of the commission of crime, nor is he today any threat to the society,'' he added.

However, N K Sharma, counsel for the CBI, the prosecuting agency in the case, opposed the mercy plea on the grounds that the court was not to decide whether the accused were in a position to affect the society in future, but to decide on the punishment for their crime committed in the past.

He said ''It is a well known fact that terrorists' organisations need money to carry out their operations and the people who extend them help commit the gravest crime.''

By helping the culprits monetarily, East-West Airlines has committed a grave crime and there is no question that they should be given concession, he added.

He said that defence counsel, by submitting that the East-West Airlines was a non-entity and cannot indulge in any such crime in future was pleading for reduction in the penalty amount.

He demanded that no concessions should be given to any such company and heavy to very heavy penalty should be imposed on it.

As for Sabu Chacko, the CBI counsel said that he was instrumental in carrying out the directions of the company's senior officials and thus helped the Dawood hitmen.

Dhingra had on Monday pronounced the jail sentence for seven convicts - Kalpnath Rai, Mohammed Ahmed Mansoor, Subhash Singh Thakur, Jayandendra Thakur, Shyam Singh Kishore, Chandrakanta Anna Patil and Paresh Mohan Desai - and fixed Wednesday as the date for arguments on sentencing the rest - S P Rai, Sabu Chacko and the East-West Airlines.

All the accused were taken into custody on that day itself.

Dhingra had sentenced three members of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, who fled to Delhi after a shootout in the J J Hospital in Bombay, to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 million each. The three - Subhash Singh Thakur, Jayanendra Thakur and Shyam Singh Kishore Garikapatti - were ordered to undergo a further imprisonment of two years if they failed to pay up the fine.

The three were also convicted under one more section of TADA and sentenced to five years' imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 each.

They were also convicted under the Arms Act and sentenced to three years' imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 each.

In case of default on the fine, the three would serve an additional six months, Dhingra ruled.

The court sentenced hitman Chandrakanta Anna Patil to six years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000.

As for gangster Paresh Mohan Desai, Dhingra said that he had already served the sentence period as an undertrial in judicial custody. However, the court imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Desai and said that in case of non-payment, he would serve a sentence of three months.

According to the CBI chargesheet, Kalpnath Rai, then federal minister, had through his assistant S P Rai arrange accommodation for Subhash Thakur and V N Rai at the guest houses of the National Thermal Power Corporation in New Delhi and Bombay Suburban State Electricity Supply at Bombay around the time of the shootout in the JJ Hospital in September 1992.

Six of Dawood's hitmen, all of whom have been convicted, were involved in the shootout. While five of them were arrested by the Delhi police in July 1993, the sixth, Mohammad Ahmed Mansoor was arrested later.

The bills for the NTPC guest rooms were paid by the corporation itself. These rooms were booked for the period June 22 to October 3, 1992.

The TADA court had framed charges against Kalpnath Rai and Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on May 24, 1996, for harbouring the Dawood gang hitmen.

Rai, who was arrested by the CBI on February 12, was released on bail following orders of the Supreme Court on May 6, 1996.

On February 19, 1997, the CBI finished its arguments in the case and Dhingra reserved the orders for Wednesday.

He had directed all accused to be present in court on Wednesday.

UNI

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