In a landmark legal decision, the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday confirmed the capital punishment awarded to 38 people and life sentences to 11 other offenders in connection with the deadly series of bomb blasts in Ahmedabad in 2008. The coordinated blasts killed 56 people and left 246 others injured.
The two-member division bench comprising Justice A.Y. Kogje and Justice S.J. Dave rejected the voluminous appeals filed by the convicted terrorists, even as it allowed the petition filed by the state government seeking confirmation of the death sentence. This has thus culminated an important appeals process involving a record trail of 7,015 pages.
Government asked to pay victims compensation until March 2027
Along with confirming the punishment for the crime, the High Court made certain directives to the Gujarat state government regarding the payment of compensation to the families of victims. The court ordered the government to pay the compensation package to all the families by March 31, 2027 as follows:
- Casualties: 10 lakh rupees to the family member of the person who is killed.
- Severe injuries: 5 lakh rupees to those people who are severely injured.
- Minor injuries: Rupees 1 lakh for persons suffering from minor injuries
Anatomy of the terror attack
The terror attack occurred on July 26, 2008, when 21 blasts occurred at different places in Ahmedabad over a period of 70 minutes. It was the first time in India’s history that municipal hospitals were specifically targeted to create maximum casualties. Two days later, unexploded bombs were unearthed and detonated in Surat.
The subsequent investigation by the Ahmedabad City Crime Branch originally charged more than 100 people in 35 distinct cases which combined 20 FIRs lodged in Ahmedabad and 15 FIRs in Surat into a joint mass trial.
The special trial court acquitted 28 people and convicted 49 people in February 2022 because of a lack of evidence that could prove their involvement in the terrorist activities. Among the acquitted are two alleged co-conspirators of the attacks, Mubin Shaikh and Mansur Pirbhoy. These people were charged with hacking of wireless networks in order to deliver messages via media, which claimed their responsibility for the bombings.
At the main trial stage, one of the state approvers received a pardon, whereas four more people who were approved and then retracted their confession statements were convicted at the same time.
The Indian Mujahideen network and radical motivation
The prosecution managed to prove that all the convicts acted under the name of the “Indian Mujahideen” (IM), which is a unique operational arm of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
The convicted terrorists are from 11 states and come from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh and include the prominent ex-leader of SIMI Safdar Nagori. The electronic evidence and emails collected in the multi-state investigation revealed that the bombings were committed in retaliation for the communal violence in Gujarat after Godhra events in 2002.
Most severe sentences justified under anti-terrorism law
The apex court reiterated that the activities of 49 accused persons justified the most severe punishment as per the laws applicable in India. It upheld the conviction of all 49 accused persons within a broad spectrum of terrorism and conspiracy-related legislation that included the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Indian Penal Code (IPC), Explosive Substances Act, and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
All 49 convicted individuals have been proven guilty of very serious statutory offenses, such as:
- Murder (Section 302 IPC) and Attempt to Murder (Section 307 IPC)
- Conspiracy (Section 120B IPC)
- Sedition and Waging war against the Nation (Section 121 IPC)
- Active involvement in any unauthorised and terrorist assembly
In order to secure the convictions of all 49 accused persons during the long-drawn 13-year trial period, the prosecution had relied upon a huge corpus of evidence from a pool of 1,163 witnesses through the period covered by nine consecutive judges. The sanctity of the evidence-based trial was maintained through 26 “star witnesses” whose identity remained confidential as per law for their protection.
