A special court in Ahmedabad on Friday sentenced 38 of 49 convicts in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts case to death while 11 others were awarded life imprisonment until death.
Special judge Ambalal R Patel awarded the sentence in a virtually pronounced the judgement., awarded the sentences on Friday. to 38 of the convicts and life imprisonment until death to the remaining.
Earlier this month, the court had held 49 accused guilty and acquitted 28 others for want of evidence and the prosecution failing to prove their guilt.
Pronouncing the quantum of punishment to the convicts in the case on Friday, the Special Judge also announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for the families of those who were killed in the blasts.
A series of coordinated bomb blasts had rocked Ahmedabad in a span of 70 minutes on 26 July 2008, killing 56 people and leaving more than 200 injured.
The accused were convicted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Explosive Substances Act and the Damage to Public Property Act. One accused was also convicted under the Arms Act.
The trial in the case had begun in December 2009 against 78 persons affiliated to Indian Mujahideen (IM), a banned terror outfit. Subsequently, after an accused turned approver, the total number of accused in the case went down to 77.
Police claimed that people attached with the IM, a group of radicals of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI),were involved in the blasts..
According to the prosecution, Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists had planned the bomb blasts to avenge the 2002 post-Godhra communal riots in Gujarat.
Days after the serial blasts ripped through Ahmedabad, the police recovered bombs from different parts of Surat, following which 20 FIRs were registered in Ahmedabad and 15 in Surat.
The trial was conducted after the court merged all 35 FIRs.
Out of the 49 convicts, 32 are currently lodged in the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad, four in a jail in Bengaluru, seven in Bhopal, three in Taloja, two in Jaipur, and one at Gaya.