New Delhi:
A division bench of the Supreme Court today passed a split verdict on the plea of a Pakistani national challenging his conviction and death sentence in the 1997 Delhi blast case.
While Justice H L Dattu was of the opinion that a fresh trial should be conducted since witnesses were not cross examined by the accused, the other judge Justice CK Prasad did not hold the same view.
In view of the split verdict, the matter has been referred to the Chief Justice.
Mohammad Hussain was convicted and sentenced to death by the trial court in November 2004 for his role in the December 30, 1997 Delhi blast which left four persons dead and 24 injured. The blast took place in a Blueline bus at Rampura near Punjabi Bagh in west Delhi.
The trial court had termed the case as the "rarest of rare".
The Delhi High Court had in August 2006 upheld the death sentence which was challenged by Hussain before the Supreme Court.
Hussain, a resident of Jindrakhar village at Okara in Pakistan, was arrested on March 21, 1998. The other accused in the case, Abdul Rehman, Azhar Ahmed and Maqsood Ahmed, were discharged for want of evidence.
In 1997, the city was rocked by 22 serial blasts. Mohammed Amir Khan, the person accused of causing two blasts in west Delhi's Karol Bagh, was sentenced to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment in one blast case and life imprisonment in the other.