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Death for Sarabjit upheld in another case

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Declines to entertain the leave to appeal filed by his lawyer

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence to Sarabjit Singh of Punjab in the fourth case of his alleged role in a series of bomb blasts which occurred in the country in 1990 "at the behest of RAW".

The court declined to entertain the leave to appeal filed by Sarabjit's lawyer, Rana Abdul Hamid as it was time barred and also on the ground of "merits."

Mr. Hamid urged the two-member Bench to refer the fourth petition to the same Bench, which had heard the earlier three petitions.

In its verdict in the first three cases, the Supreme Court last month upheld the death sentence on the ground that Sarabjit did not deserve any leniency.

Mr. Hamid told the court that Sarabjit was not Manjit Singh, who was wanted in connection with five bomb blasts. The defence case was that Sarabjit crossed over to Pakistan to sell liquor and he was caught and implicated as Manjit Singh.

He argued before the Supreme Court that the view taken by the lower courts — Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) and the Lahore High Court (LHC) — could have been different as there was considerable evidence to suggest that he was not involved in the case. "It is an error of judgment patently visible in the case. The sentence is for Manjit, not for Sarabjit," the lawyer said.

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