Pakistani national Mohammad Hussain, who was awarded death sentence in a 1997 Delhi blast case in which four people were killed, will have to face trial again with the Supreme Court directing re-trial after setting aside his conviction and capital punishment.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice RM Lodha gave this order on the ground that he was not given full opportunity to defend himself in the lower court.
The apex court passed the order after a division bench earlier had given a split verdict on his appeal with one judge directing a fresh trial and the other holding the trial as “illegal” and ordering Hussain’s deportation to Pakistan.
Mohammad Hussain was convicted and sentenced to death in November 2004 by the trial court for his alleged role in a 1997 Delhi blast case which had occurred in a bus leaving four persons dead and 24 others injured.
The trial court had termed the case as “the rarest of rare” and had awarded death sentence to Hussain, a native of Jindrakhar village at Okara in Pakistan.
