SC orders re-trial of Pak national on death row

Pakistani national Mohammad Hussain, who was awarded death sentence in a 1997 Delhi blast case in which four people had died, will have to face trial again with the Supreme Court on Friday directing re-trial after setting aside his conviction and capital punishment.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice R M Lodha gave this order on the ground that he was not given full opportunity to defend himself in the lower court.

The apex court passed the order after a division bench earlier had given a split verdict on his appeal with one judge directing a fresh (de nova) trial and the other holding the trial as "illegal" and ordering Hussain's deportation to Pakistan.

Mohammad Hussain was convicted and sentenced to death in November 2004 by the trial court for his role in a 1997 Delhi blast case which had occurred in a blue line bus leaving four persons dead and 24 others injured.

The trial court had termed the case as "the rarest of rare" one and had awarded death sentence to Hussain, a native of Jindrakhar village at Okara in Pakistan.

The high court had in August 2006 upheld his conviction and the death sentence which was challenged by the Hussain before the apex court.