AHMEDABAD, Feb 9: Hearing on the quantum of punishment for the 49 held guilty by the special court in the 2008 serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad was on Wednesday postponed by two days.
The judge AR Patel has directed to submit all the documents related to the guilty persons by Thursday before taking up the hearing on quantum of punishment on Friday. The hearing was deferred on a request by the defence advocate who wanted three weeks’ time to submit details of the educational background of the accused which he said should be taken into account before deciding their punishment.
The prosecution, however, opposed any move to defer the hearing pointing out that the case related to terrorism and the punishment should be decided accordingly irrespective of their educational background. But the court gave the defence one day’s time to submit the documents.
The special court had on Tuesday held 49 accused guilty while acquitting 28 others after protracted trial for 13 years in the July, 2008, serial bomb blast in the city in which 56 persons were killed and over 230 injured. As many as 77 faced trial in the case. Among those held guilty was the former chief of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) Safdar Nagori.
The trial in the case ended in September last year. Earlier, the case was notified several times for pronouncement of judgment but was adjourned. In 2008, after the serial blasts, the Gujarat Police had busted a nationwide network of radical elements from a minority community who were involved in carrying out serial blasts in the city.
The police said people associated with banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), a faction of radicals of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), were involved in carrying out the serial blasts.
The trial had begun after as many as 35 cases were merged and consolidated into one case. The FIRs were filed in Ahmedabad, where the blasts took place, and in Surat, where police found 29 bombs planted but none exploded due to some technical errors. The prosecution had examined over 1,100 witnesses. The Special Judge Patel had taken over the trial in 2009, a year after the blasts. Besides murder, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy, the accused were slapped with charges under anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
(Manas Dasgupta)
