2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case: 38 of 49 awarded death sentence, life imprisonment to 11

Earlier this month, the court had held 49 accused guilty and acquitted 28 others for want of evidence and the prosecution failing to prove their guilt

Holding the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts as "rarest of the rare" case, a special designated court on Friday sentenced 38 people to death, while 11 others were awarded life imprisonment until death. The sentencing came 10 days after the court had held 49 people guilty of carrying out the terror strikes that killed 56 persons and acquitted 28 others for want of evidence and the prosecution failing to prove their case.

Special judge Ambalal R Patel, who was designated to conduct the speedy trial, pronounced the verdict on quantum of sentence to all 49 convicts, whom he had found guilty on February 8. In the virtually pronounced judgement, he read out the operative part, stating that 38 of the convicts be hanged till death and remaining 11 to undergo life imprisonment until death. Majority of them are under judicial custody for over 13 years.

The 38 convicts were awarded capital punishment under section 302 (murder) of Indian Penal Code along with section-10 and 16 (1) (a), (b) of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA. During the hearings on quantum of punishment, many of the convicts had broken down while pleading for mercy. Some of them had criticised the judicial system while asked the judge and public prosecutor to embrace Islam.

In the voluminous 7015-page judgement, the court also announced compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the families of 56 persons who were killed and Rs 50,000 to those who sustained injuries and Rs 25,000 to those who suffered minor injuries in the serial bomb blasts. As per the procedure, the court will send its judgement to the high court for confirmation to carry out sentencing.

The court has ordered 48 of the convicts to pay Rs 2.85 lakh each as fine, while another convict Mohammed Usman Agarbattiwala, a resident of Vadodara, has been asked to pay a fine of Rs 2.88 lakh. Agarbattiwala is the only convict who was found guilty under Arms Act. The court has stated that this money be used in awarding compensation to the victims' families.

On July 26, 2008, simultaneous bomb blasts had killed 56 persons in Ahmedabad and left over 200 injured. The police registered 20 FIRs in Ahmedabad, while 15 other FIRs were registered in Surat, where bombs were recovered from various locations. Both the cases were merged for trial as police investigation claimed that "they were part of the same conspiracy" by a terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen, a breakaway faction of banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

The investigation was carried out by Detection of Crime Branch (DCB), Ahmedabad which claimed that the motive behind the terror strikes was "avenging atrocities on Muslims during 2002 post Godhra riots." Following the order, the public prosecutors said that the court has found the police's investigation to be credible which claimed that apart from civilians, individual leaders, including then chief minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, local MLA Pradipsinh Jadeja and BJP leader Pradip Parmar, currently a cabinet minister, were also under the target. Parmar had sustained injuries in the blast outside the trauma ward of the civil hospital, which was also targeted.

The public prosecutors said that the court has believed police's investigation that the motive behind carrying out the coordinated blasts was "avenging 2002 post Godhra riots." A court record of framing charges against the suspects back in 2010 stated that "to take revenge for atrocities on Muslims and to establish Islam in the country," the accused, now convicts, conspired.

The charges read that the suspects withheld their identities of being members of banned SIMI and formed a new organisation "Indian Mujahideen ''. They held meetings at Ahmedabad, Surat and other cities where they lectured on terrorism activities and psychologically prepared each another to carry out terrorist activities. It said that to execute their plans, they held terror training camps at Vagamon in the jungles of Kerala in 2007 and in 2008 they did it in the forests of Halol-Pavagadh in central Gujarat.

Meanwhile, the Ahmedabad police posted a picture on its Twitter account terming the judgement as "historic". The post has picture of Director General of Police, Ashish Bhatia, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Abhay Chudasama on top along with pictures of IGP Girish Singhal, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Himanshu Shukla, DIG Rajendra Asari and Superintendent of Police Mayur Chavda who were associated with the investigation of the case.

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