The Gujarat High Court has directed the state government to decide within six months the remission plea of a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Shahnawaz Bhatti, who is serving a life term after being arrested with 22 kg of RDX in 2001.
Justice MR Mengdey passed the direction on June 17 after being informed that the opinion of the Jail Advisory Committee had been sought on Bhatti’s remission application.
Bhatti, a Pakistani national, was arrested near the Kutch border in 2001, along with 22 kg of RDX, an AK-56 assault rifle, and ammunition.
Investigators alleged that he had infiltrated India as part of a Lashkar-e-Taiba conspiracy to carry out terrorist activities.
A trial court in Kutch sentenced Bhatti to death. But the Gujarat high court declined to confirm the capital punishment in August 2007 and commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment.
In his petition to the high court, Bhatti submitted that he had spent more than two decades in prison without being released on parole and that his application for remission had remained pending for nearly two years.
Taking note of the jail authorities’ submission that the process for considering remission had already commenced with the opinion of the Jail Advisory Committee, the court directed the competent authority to complete the exercise and take a decision in accordance with law within six months.
