AHMEDABAD: An Indian court on Friday sentenced 38 Muslim men to death and ordered life in prison for 11 others for a series of bomb blasts in the city of Ahmedabad that killed more than 50 people in 2018.
The explosions had badly shaken the western state of Gujarat. A group called the Indian Mujahideen had allegedly claimed responsibility for the blasts on July 26, 2008.
Judge A.R. Patel ordered the punishment after the prosecution pressed for the death sentence describing the incident as a “rarest of rare case” in which innocent lives were lost.
A defence lawyer said they would appeal the verdict in a higher court. “We had sought lenient sentences for the convicts as they have already spent more than 13 years in prison,” Khalid Shaikh told a news agency. “But the court awarded death to the majority of them. We will definitely go for appeal.”
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The special court designated for the speedy trial of the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts cases sentenced 38 of the 49 convicts to death and eleven to life in prison. This is the highest number of convicts to be sentenced to death in a single case in India’s legal history. However, all the sentences shall be running concurrently.
As many as 22 bombs went off in Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, including the state government-run civil hospital, buses, parked bicycles, cars and other places killing 56 persons and leaving 200 injured.
On February 8, the special court had convicted 49 of the total 78 accused in the case. Another 28 were acquitted and one accused Ayaz Saiyed turned approver in the case in 2019, supporting the prosecution’s case and has now been pardoned and acquitted of all charges.
