According to the court, convicts were highly competent and educated, making it difficult for investigators to obtain information, according to the court.  

PAROMITA DAS

The convicts in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case knew how to deceive investigators, and it was difficult to gather evidence against them because they are highly skilled and educated—some of them doctors, professors, and computer experts—the special court noted in its verdict, which sentenced 38 Indian Mujahideen cadres to death and sentenced 11 others to life in prison.

The decision, a copy of which was posted on the special court’s website on Saturday, a day after the verdict, noted that despite challenges, the investigating officers gathered a considerable quantity of evidence against the accused.

The evidence, coupled with the surrounding circumstances, would serve as the foundation for the decision, according to the court.

On the evening of July 26, 2008, as many as 21 bombs swept through Ahmedabad, killing 56 people and wounding over 200 in just 70 minutes.”

During the course of the proceedings over the last five years, it has come to the attention of this court that the accused are highly skilled in every aspect- they are educated, with some of them being doctors, professors, and computer experts, and they have committed crimes in other states, with cases against them pending in these states.

“The accused are such that extracting information from them in order to get to the bottom of the crime is a difficult task.

Despite this, the investigating police obtained a substantial amount of evidence against them, which would form the basis of the judgment, together with the circumstances surrounding them,” the court stated.

The court further stated that even before committing the crime, the accused persons planned how they would flee if discovered; what information they would disclose and what they would keep hidden during the police investigation, and how they would defend themselves in court.

According to the court, the number of explosions, their intensity, and the synchronization with which they were carried out may readily suggest that it were part of a “premeditated plot” that had been planned for several years.

Eight of the accused were trained in a camp in Halol-Pavagadh, Panchmahal district, Gujarat.

According to the court, they instructed others on how to carry on the activities of the proscribed terror group SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India), attack the Central and state governments (Gujarat), and destabilize the constitutionally-elected governments.

According to the court, the bulk of these defendants initiated the procedure to avenge the deaths and property damage experienced by Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The SIMI, which had been prohibited since 2001, was reactivated. It worked between 2002 and 2008, having meetings in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Surat, according to the report.

According to the court, they (the defendants) attended terror training camps where they were brainwashed with “jihadi” statements. SIMI had active members among the 31 accused in the Ahmedabad serial bombings.

They attended several gatherings, utilized Jihadi speeches, and also invited people to attend the meetings and observe the court. “They talked about triggering bomb blasts in Hindu majority settlements to avenge the Godhra riots and launching jihad against the anti-Muslim government in their lectures.

They rented houses and used them to store materials and make bombs “the court took note of. SIMI members allegedly assisted seven other accused in constructing bombs and installing bomb-laden cycles in various locations (in Ahmedabad), according to the report.

“Many of the accused stayed in hotels in Ahmedabad, Bharuch, Pune, Vapi, and Hyderabad under aliases. They stole four-wheelers from Mumbai, brought cycles and gas bottles, and carried out reconnaissance before planting bombs “According to the court. Bombs exploded in Ahmedabad at numerous locations, including the state government-run civil hospital, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation-run LG Hospital, on buses, parked bicycles, in automobiles, and elsewhere, killing 56 people.

In the following days, as many as 29 live explosives were discovered in Surat, yet none of them exploded. While 38 people were convicted by the court under sections 302 (murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 11 others were found guilty for criminal conspiracy and under various sections of the UAPA, according to the prosecution.

The court fined 48 convicts Rs 2.85 lakh and another convict Rs 2.88 lakh. The court also granted Rs one lakh in compensation to the families of those killed in the blasts; Rs 50,000 to those critically injured, and Rs 25,000 to those with slight injuries.