The Delhi High Court reduced the life sentence of five Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists to ten years in prison. The Court noted that the trial Court may have been swayed by the seriousness of the charges and overlooked the convicts' remorsefulness, convicting them swiftly. Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain of the division bench remarked that considering the terrorists' youth and clean records, the trial court should have focused on rehabilitation.
They deemed it appropriate to lessen the sentence under Section 121A IPC and Section 23 UAPA. The convicts Bilal Ahmed Mir, Sajjad Ahmed Khan, Muzaffar Ahmed Bhat, Mehraj ud Din Chaupal, and Ishfaq Ahmed Bhat received life imprisonment for offenses under Section 121A and Section 23 of the Indian Penal Code. Referring to Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment, the bench emphasized that a person with a conscience suffers while admitting guilt, which serves as their punishment alongside incarceration.
The bench concluded that justice would be best served by reducing the sentence to ten years of rigorous imprisonment. All appeals were settled with this modification, sentencing the appellants to ten years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2000 for the offense.
