Ahmedabad: In a historic verdict, a special court here on Friday awarded capital punishment to 38 of the 49 convicts in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts that claimed 56 lives and left over a 200 injured, in a trial that continued for 13 years leaving 28 people acquitted.
The verdict is being considered rare and historic since 38 people were slapped death sentences in one go, as against 26 in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case in 1991.
Eleven convicts have been awarded life imprisonment until death while as many as 29 (including one approver) have been acquitted after serving a long jail sentence as undertrials.
Special Judge AR Patel ordered a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to be paid to the next of kin of those who had died, a compensation of Rs 50,000 for victims with severe injuries and Rs 25,000 for those with minor injuries.
As many as 22 bomb blasts ripped through various places in Ahmedabad in quick succession at different spots, including the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation-run LG Hospital, state government-run civil hospital, on buses, bicycles, cars and other places, on July 26, 2008.
The Gujarat police had claimed that people associated with the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), a faction of radicals of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), were involved in the blasts. It was alleged that the IM terrorists had planned these blasts to avenge the 2002 post-Godhra riots. The Islamic militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami had claimed responsibility for the attacks.
PTI ADDS: Safdar Nagori, one of the 38 convicts sentenced to death, appeared remorseless after the sentencing, and was heard saying the Constitution does not mean anything to him.
“The Constitution does not count for me. For me, the decisions of the Koran are supreme," Bhopal Central Jail Superintendent Dinesh Nargawe quoted Nagori as saying.
Survivors and the relatives of those who died in the blasts welcomed the court's decision.
Collegian Yash Vyas, who was a 9-year-old when he suffered severe burn injuries after a blast rocked the trauma ward of the civil hospital in Asarva area, said he and his mother were waiting for this verdict day for the last 13 years.
"I am happy that the court awarded death penalty to 38 persons who were responsible for killing innocent people, including my father and brother. Even the 11 who were given life imprisonment should have got the death penalty. There should be no mercy for such people," Yash, 22 now and a second-year B.Sc student, said.
Yash spent four months in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital with 50 per cent burn injuries, and continues to suffer from partial hearing impairment because of the impact of the explosion.
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