If you kill, you can forget your family: Supreme Court to convict

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea for interim bail by a convict in the 1996 Delhi bomb blasts, saying those convicted of killing innocents must forget their family ties.

“Those who indulge in indiscriminate killings of innocent people must forget their family ties,” observed a bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul as the court rejected Mohammaed Naushad’s plea for the interim bail to attend his daughter’s wedding in March.

Naushad is serving life term for his involvement in the bomb blasts in Lajpat Nagar area on 21 May, 1996 which left 13 persons dead and 38 injured.

“This is such a heinous crime. Those who carry out such activities must realise this is the end of the families. You can’t kill citizens indiscriminately and say I have my family, my sons, my daughters,” the bench said.

“You cannot have both… Either this or that. If you want to kill indiscriminately you cannot say I have a family. Once you kill, that’s the end of your family,” Chief Justice Khehar observed.

The counsel for Naushad urged the court to grant him parole as he had already spent 20 years in jail.

Naushad sought interim bail for a month to attend his daughter’s marriage in March. The police confirmed the wedding was fixed for March.