Ahmedabad Serial Blasts: What Happened On July 26, 2008? A Timeline Of Events On The Day Of Attacks

21 bombs went off within a span of 70 minutes on the ill fated day of July 26, 2008 in the cultural and commercial epicentre of Gujarat, Ahmedabad.

This file photo taken on July 27, 2008 shows Indian forensic experts collecting evidence from a blast site outside the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad | Photo: AFP

New Delhi: A special Gujarat Court on Friday pronounced quantum of punishment against the 49 convicts in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blast case. The Court pronounced the death sentence on 38 out of 49 convicts while 11 other convicts were awarded life imprisonment. 

Under Section 302 of the Indian penal Code (IPC) and  Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 38 convicts were awarded death sentences. A compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the kin of people who were killed in the blasts was awarded by Special Judge AR Patel. 

July 26, 2008 - The Ill-fated day 

21 bombs went off within a span of 70 minutes on the ill-fated day of July 26, 2008, in the cultural and commercial epicenter of Gujarat, Ahmedabad. The serial blasts went off at several locations in the city including state government-run Ahmedabad Civil Hospital Ahmedabad, Municipal Corporation-run LG Hospital. Many buses of the Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service were also used to plant the explosives. 

The blasts had left 56 people dead while 200 people were injured.

As many as 29 live bombs were also found in Surat in the next couple of days though none of them exploded.

The low-intensity blasts in Ahmedabad occurred a day after similar blasts had happened in Bangalore. 

Some media channels reported that they had received email from, then unknown outfit, Indian Mujahideen who claimed responsibility for the blasts. 

Police had also claimed that members of the IM, a radicalised faction of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), were behind the blasts.

The IM planned the blasts as revenge for the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat in which over a thousand persons, most of them from the Muslim community, had died, the investigators have said.

Arrests & Trial In The Case - A Complete Timeline

The first arrest made in connection with the case was on July 27, 2008, when a suspected member of the Students Islamic Movement of India, Maulana Abdul Halim was arrested from Ahmedabad. 

A total of 35 cases were registered which were merged into one and the trial began in April 2010.

The state government had transferred the investigation to the Ahmedabad crime branch, under the supervision of then JCP Ashish Bhatia, who is now serving as the Gujarat DGP.

A total of nine different judges presided over the case, starting with Bela Trivedi, in whose court charges were framed against the accused on February 15, 2010. Justice Trivedi is now the judge of the Supreme Court.

Special judge AR Patel, who handed over the judgment, started hearing the case on June 14, 2017.