After 14 years of trial, a special court in Gujrat has sentenced 38 people to death and life imprisonment for 11 other convicts in the 2008 Ahmedabad Serial Blasts case. It is the first-ever case verdict in Indian judicial history, ruling capital punishment for a maximum number of convicts.
On 26th July 2008, 21 bombs hit various places in Ahmedabad, Gujrat within 70 minutes, killing 56 people and injuring more than 200. The bombs were packed in tiffin boxes and planted in bicycles.
Incidentally, a day before, on the 25th July 2008, serial bombings of a similar nature targeted the city of Bengaluru, Karnataka. In both bombings, terrorists had used low-intensity explosives.
Indian Mujahideen and Harkat-ul-jihadi-al-Islami claimed responsibility for the blasts. Numerous TV channels received an email five minutes before the serial explosion, calling it retaliation for the 2002 Gujrat riots, which took place after the Godhra Rail Carnage. The 14 pages threat email also carried warnings for leading industrialists and film celebrities of Bollywood.
On 8th Feb, the special court convicted 49 of the 78 accused. However, it acquitted 28 of them, giving them the benefit of the doubt, and awarded a pardon for one of the convicts for turning approver in the case.
The accused were tried under sections Waging war against the nation, Sedition, Murder, Unlawful (Prevention) Act, and Explosive Substances Act. Also, for planting bombs in Surat, Gujrat, to cause explosions in the same manner.
Indian Mujahideen is a resurgent organization of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) banned in the country. Its former leader Safdar Nagori and other key conspirators, Qumaruddin Nagori, Qayumuddin Kapadiya, Zahid Shaikh, and Shamsuddhin Sheikh, are among those awarded death in the case.
Special Judge A. R. Patel gave the verdict in the case running over 7000 pages. The court, in its ruling, has equated the convicts to man-eating leopards and said allowing them to be part of the society is like setting predators free among innocents.