Thomas, J. - (1.) Bilal Ahmad Kaloo, a Kashmiri youth had a sojourn in the city of Hyderabad and was involved in a prosecution under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987, (for short TADA). Though the Designated Court under TADA has acquitted him of the offences under TADA he was convicted of Sedition under Section 124-A of Indian Penal Code and was sentenced to imprisonment for life, besides being convicted of certain other lesser offences for which a sentence of rigorous imprisonment for three years was awarded under each count. This appeal has been preferred by the said convicted person under Section 19 of the TADA.
(2.) The case against the appellant in short is the following. Appellant was an active member of a militant outfit called Al-Jehad which (was) formed with the ultimate object of liberating Kashmir from Indian Union. With this in mind appellant spread communal hatred among the Muslim youth in the old city of Hyderabad and exhorted them to undergo training in armed militancy and offered them arms and amunitions. He himself was in possession of lethal weapons like country-made revolver and live cartridges. He was propagating among the Muslims that in Kashmir Muslims were being subjected to atrocities by the Indian Army personnel.
(3.) During the period when series of bomb-blasting occurred in the city of Hyderabad the police kept a close watch on the activities of the appellant who was then staying in a room adjacent to Masjid-e-Niyameth Kha-e-Ali at Mir-ka-Daira at Haribowli in Hyderabad. He was arrested on 19-1-1994 and after recording his confessional statement the police seized a revolver and two cartridges which were produced by him. After investigation was completed he was challaned before the Designated Court at Hyderabad for offences under Sections 124-A, 436, 153-A and 505(2), IPC, and under Sections 3 (3), 4 (3) and 5 of the TADA, and also under Section 25 of the Indian Arms Act,;