New Delhi, Dec. 3: The Supreme Court today stayed the death sentence awarded to Mohammed Ashfaq, the Lashkar militant accused in the Red Fort attack case of 2000.

The stay follows a ruling of Delhi High Court on September 13 this year upholding Ashfaq’s death sentence while acquitting six others who had been handed jail terms in connection with the attack.

“Sentence stayed, appeal admitted,” the two-judge apex court bench said after Ashfaq’s counsel Kamini Jaiswal filed the plea.

Ashfaq, a Pakistani, was involved in the shootout that claimed three lives, including those of two army jawans.

The high court had overturned the trial court’s judgment against the six convicts, including the life terms given to the Srinagar-based Nazir Ahmed Qasid and his son Farooq.

Among the others let off by the high court was Ashfaq’s Indian wife, Rehamana Yosuf Farooqui. She had been handed a seven-year term.