2005 Shramjeevi Express blast case accused get death penalty

Lucknow: A district court in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur town on Wednesday sentenced to death the two terror-accused who had triggered a blast in the Shramjeevi Express train 19 years back killing 14 people.

Additional district and sessions judge Rajesh Kumar Rai sentenced Hilaluddin alias Hilal, a native of Bangladesh, and Nafiqul Biswas, a resident of West Bengal to death after finding them guilty of murder, attempt to murder and under the Explosives Act.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs five lakh each on the two accused persons.

The court had on December 22 held the two guilty and had heard the rival counsels on the quantum of punishment. It had reserved its order on the punishment on Tuesday.

According to the prosecution lawyer Virendra Kumar Maurya, as many as 117 witnesses had deposed in the case.

There were in all seven accused in the case. Two other accused, identified as Obaid-ur-Rehman and Roni, in the matter had been sentenced to death in 2016 by the district court. One died during the pendency of the trial while two others remained untraceable.

Fourteen persons were killed and 62 others injured when a powerful blast had rocked Patna-New Delhi Shramjeevi Express near Hariharpur railway crossing in Jaunpur district on July 28, 2005.

The witnesses said that two youths had boarded the train carrying a white suitcase at Jaunpur railway station and that they later detrained without the suitcase when the train started moving.

It later turned out that the blast was triggered using RDX which was kept in the toilet.