A total of 49 persons accused in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case, which killed 56 people and injured over 200, have been convicted by a special court on Tuesday, 8 February.
The court has also acquitted 28 other accused involved in the case. A series of 21 blasts had rocked the city in a span of 70 minutes on 26 July 2008.
While Safdar Nagori, Atikur Rehman, Javed Ahmed, and Zahid Qutbuddin Shaikh are among those who have been convicted, those who have been acquitted include Shakeel Ahmed, Mohammad Irfan, Nasir Ahmad, and Salim Jamalbhai Sipai.
The quantum of punishment for the convicted persons will be decided by the court on Wednesday, reported news agency PTI.
The court, which pronounced the verdict 13 years after the incident, had completed the trial against all the 77 accused in September 2021.
Special Public Prosecutor Amit Patel told PTI that the 49 accused were convicted under Section 16 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, besides other sections of the Act, and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 302 (murder) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy).
"The court acquitted 28 accused, giving them the benefit of doubt," he said, adding that the judgment would give more clarity on the verdict.
During the course of the trial, he said, as many as 547 charge sheets were filed and 1,163 witnesses examined.
Background
The trial in the case had started in December 2009 against 78 persons affiliated to Indian Mujahideen (IM), a banned terror outfit. Subsequently, after an accused turned approver, the total number of accused in the case went down to 77. People attached with the IM, a group of radicals of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), police claimed, were involved in the blasts.
IM terrorists had allegedly carried out the blasts as a counter-attack for the 2002 post-Godhra riots, during which several people from the minority community had died.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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