Calcutta HC doesn't uphold LeT militant's death sentence

Kolkata, Nov 14 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Monday did not uphold the death penalty handed down by the West Bengal trial court to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant Sheik Abdul Naim in 2018.

Naim, along with some of his associates, were nabbed by the Border Security Force (BSF) in 2007 while they were trying to cross the Benapole-Petrapole international border at Bangaon sub-division in North 24 Parganas district with a large cache of explosives.

Later, investigation revealed that Naim and his associates were planning to use the explosives to carry out destructive activities in different pockets of the country. He was tried and sentenced to death by the additional district court in Bangaon in 2018.

However, the high court's division bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Ananya Bandyopadhyay changed the death sentence to ten years imprisonment.

After he was sentenced to death, Naim was sent to Tihar jail in Delhi. Subsequently, he moved the Calcutta High Court challenging the decision, and argued his own case, instead of appointing any counsel.

Currently, he is housed at Presidency Central Correctional Home in south Kolkata.