AHMEDABAD: A total of 38 men were sentenced to death and 11 more will spend the rest of their lives in prison for the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts, a special judge pronounced on Friday in an unprecedented judgment in the country that handed the death penalty to the highest number of convicts at one go in a single case. As many as 56 people were killed and 246 wounded when 20 explosions ripped through the city on July 26, nearly 14 years ago.
Special judge AR Patel gave his order that ran into more than 7,000 pages against the 49 convicts from eight different states for the specific offence of plotting a criminal conspiracy for mass killings to avenge the 2002 Gujarat riots and it was found during investigation that one of their targets was PM Narendra Modi, then chief minister of the state.
They were also sentenced for waging war against the nation, sedition, murder and provisions under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Explosive Substances Act among 29 other offences. They were held guilty for planting 15 bombs in Surat city as well.
In no case before in India have so many people been sent to the gallows at one stroke. The highest such count earlier was in January 1998 when a TADA court in Tamil Nadu awarded capital punishment to all 26 convicts for the assassination of former PM Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
It took 24 minutes and 22 seconds for the special court to read out the quantum of punishment to the 49 lodged in prisons in six places — Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Gaya, Taloja, Bengaluru and Bhopal. The special court convicted 49 of the 78 accused in the case on February 8 this year and acquitted 28 citing benefit of doubt, while one was pardoned for turning approver.
“The court termed the case as the rarest of rare and ordered 38 convicts to be hanged till death and 11 were awarded jail till last breath. This is a case wherein the highest number of convicts were awarded death sentences,” said public prosecutor Amit Patel.
“The court has observed that it is not proper to maintain such convicts in jail because they have been involved in anti-national activities. If they are allowed to be part of society, it amounts to setting man-eating leopards free amongst the innocents…Since they did not show any mercy to innocents, there is no reason for the court to show mercy to them…,” the special prosecutors said as they requested for maximum punishment.
They said the court appealed to religious organisations to boycott terrorist outfits. The court cited Quranic verses in its order to define and differentiate the concept of jihad and terrorism.
Gujarat DGP Ashish Bhatia, who led the investigation, said the severity of the death penalty is in accordance with the case as it was one of the biggest terrorist strikes during that time. “This is a landmark judgment…Investigation into this case helped break terror modules to the extent that no major blast took place in India since 2011,” he said.
Investigators had claimed to have found that former members of the banned Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) formed a new outfit called Indian Mujahideen and carried out disruptive activities. Their motive for planting bombs in Ahmedabad and Surat was to avenge the post-Godhra riots. An accused named Imran Pathan had mentioned in his statement to a judicial magistrate that Modi was on their radar, according to the investigation.
The court ordered all sentences to run concurrently. Those punished with death will remain in jail unless the sentence is commuted, or an appropriate order is passed in this regard. The court said that there is no question of setting off the time already spent in jail because the punishment is either death or jail term for life.
The court imposed a fine of Rs 2.85 lakh on 48 convicts and Rs 2.88 lakh on another. It also awarded compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the relatives of those killed in the blasts, Rs 50,000 to the gravely wounded, and Rs 25,000 to those who suffered minor injuries.
The defence lawyers requested the court to show leniency by giving them an opportunity to reform. They asked the court to take into consideration the poor condition of their families and attempts to acquire educational qualifications while in jail for more than 13 years.
Those awarded the death sentence include key conspirators Safdar Nagori and Qumaruddin Nagori from Madhya Pradesh as well as Qayumuddin Kapadiya, Zahid Shaikh and Shamsuddin Sheikh from Gujarat. Both Safdar and Zahid were accused of collecting funds to acquire explosives and for other illegal activities of SIMI.
