New Delhi: A special Gujarat court on Friday pronounced the death sentence on 38 out of 49 convicts in the Ahmedabad serial bomb blast case. Eleven other convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Death sentence to the 38 convicts was awarded under sections 302 (murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian penal Code (IPC), and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Special Judge A R Patel in his over 7,000-page judgment termed the case as the rarest of rare and pronounced the death sentence on the convicts.
A compensation of Rs 1 lakh was awarded to the family members of people killed in the serial blast, while Rs 50,000 was awarded to seriously injured and Rs 25,000 to victims with minor injuries.
The court last week had pronounced 49 accused guilty of the crime, while 28 others were acquitted.
On July 26, 2008, Ahmedabad city was rocked by a series of bomb blasts in which 56 people were killed and over 200 hundred injured. Islamic militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami had claimed responsibility for the attack. As many as 21 bomb blasts were carried out by the outfit across the city in a span of 70 minutes. The Ahmedabad civil hospital was also targeted in the blasts.
The attack was allegedly carried out to seek revenge for the riots that happened in Godhra, Gujarat in 2002.
Over a period of time, the Gujarat police arrested 85 people for their involvement in the crime but a trial commenced against 78 persons.
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