S. Ravindra Bhat, J.

1. These two appeals challenge a common judgment and order of sentence, dated 27.08.2009 and 19.09.2009 respectively whereby the appellants (hereafter “accused”) were convicted for committing offences under Section 121, 121-A, 122 and 123, IPC read with Section 120-B IPC, as well as Sections 17, 18 and 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and further convicted under Sections 4 and 5 of the Explosives Substances Act. They were sentenced to undergo various imprisonment for various terms, the highest of which is life imprisonment; they were also directed to pay fine.

2. The prosecution alleged that in the first week of November 2006, secret information was received in Special Cell, Delhi Police regarding one Kashmiri boy (member of Jaish-e-Mohammad, JeM) who used to carry arms, ammunition, explosives and money from Delhi to Jammu and Kashmir. A team led by Insp. Mohan Chand Sharma was formed under the supervision of ACP Sanjeev Kumar Yadav (PW-15). At about 05:00 PM on 28.11.2006 secret information was received at PS Special Cell by SI Rahul Kumar (PW-14) regarding Faisal. The secret informer telephonically informed that Faisal, with another boy (accused) was coming to Delhi from Deoband by Kalka-Delhi train and that they would reach Old Delhi Railway station at about 07:45 PM. The informer further stated that he would deliver a consignment of explosives to one of their associates near Kaudia Pul. The secret information was reduced to writing and DD No. 12, (Ex.PW-15/H) was recorded.

3. It was alleged that on the basis of the information, a team consisting of Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, Insp. Sanjay Dutt, Insp. Badrish Dutt, Insp. Subhash Vats, SI Dharmender (PW-1), SI Dalip Kumar (PW-5), SI Rakesh Malik, SI Kailash Bisht, SI Rahul Kumar (PW-14) and others was formed. The team left PS Special Cell at about 06:00 PM; PW-14 met the secret informer and he too joined the team. At about 08:10 PM they saw two persons coming on foot towards Kaudia Pul; one person had slung a bag over his left shoulder and carried a brief case in his right hand. The other person was carrying a shoulder bag over his left shoulder. The informer identified the boy with the brief case in his right hand as Faisal. The two persons stopped in front of Hemant Telecom (a shop) and waited under the bridge, Kaudia Pul for about 10 minutes. When they started moving from there, the two persons were apprehended. Faisal @Mohd. Iqbal @ Mushtaq was apprehended by PW-1 and PW-14 whereas Mushtaq Ahmed Kallo @ Afzal was apprehended by PW-5 and PW-8. The bags of these two persons were searched and from Mohd.Iqbal’s bag Rs. 5,00,000/-, a cheque book and some other documents were recovered. From accused Mushtaq AhmedKallo @ Afzal’s granulated black coloured bag, explosives were recovered. Two samples of 10gms each were extracted from out of the recovered 2 kgs of explosives, and retained in two separate containers. The remaining explosives were sealed.

4. SI Rahul Kumar (PW-14) asked members of the public to join the investigation. Two witnesses Nand Kishore (PW-11) and Sikander Azam (PW-7) joined the police party. The recovered items were seized and sealed; the entire process was photographed. The accused were interrogated. During interrogation, they disclosed that they were members of JeM and had come to Delhi to deliver explosives which were to be used to carry out terrorist activities. Mohd.Iqbal further revealed that the explosive items were collected from Sohaib in Deoband and he (accused) was supposed to deliver them to Raju, member of JeM at Kaudia Pul. He further disclosed that the Rs.5,00,000/-recovered from him were collected from a hawala operator in Delhi and that the money was to be used for the purpose of terrorism.

5. The rukka was prepared by PW-14 and sent to PS Special Cell through ASI Charan Singh for registration of case. Further investigation of the case was handed over to ACP Sanjeev Yadav (PW-15). The explos