Ahmedabad, Jul 7 : The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday upheld a special court order that pronounced death sentences for 38 operatives of the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) and life imprisonment for 11 others in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts, which claimed 56 lives.
The special court’s February 2022 order marked the first time that so many convicts had been handed down the death sentence by any court at one go.
The convicts include Safdar Nagori, former leader of the banned outfit Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), and his associates.
The high court also directed the state government to pay compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of those who died in the serial blasts and Rs 5 lakh to those who were grievously injured.
A division bench of justices A Y Kogje and Samir Dave rejected all appeals against the order of the lower court and upheld its verdict confirming the sentences to members of the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen in the case.
On July 26, 2008, a series of 21 bomb blasts ripped through different areas of Ahmedabad in a span of 70 minutes, killing 56 persons and leaving more than 200 others injured. Explosions also struck hospitals in the city as blast victims from other places were being rushed in for treatment — marking the first time medical facilities were targeted in such an attack.
Seventy-eight persons were put on trial before the special court, and of them, 49 were convicted in February 2022. The trial was conducted after merging 35 different police cases, 20 FIRs lodged in Ahmedabad for 21 blasts and 15 in Surat city, where the terrorists had placed bombs, but they did not detonate.
The special court in February 2022 sentenced 38 IM members to death and 11 others to life imprisonment.
Among those convicted were former SIMI leader Safdar Nagori and his associates from 11 states, including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.
All the persons convicted by the lower court had challenged the order in the High Court. The state government had approached the HC for confirmation of sentences to the convicts.
Special public prosecutor Amit Patel said the government had placed all the evidence against the convicts before the high court during the trial.
The HC heard the case extensively for more than one and a half years, and from February this year, the case was heard on a day-to-day basis, he said.
Patel said the court has directed the state government to pay compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh to those injured before March 30, 2027.
This was the first time that such a large number of convicts had been handed the death sentence by any court in one go.
In January 1998, a TADA court in Tamil Nadu sentenced to death all 26 convicts in the case of the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
