More than four years after a special court convicted 49 persons in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case, the Gujarat High Court upheld the verdict, confirming the death penalty for 38 members of the banned Indian Mujahideen (IM) and life imprisonment for 11 others. The Court also directed the Gujarat government to pay compensation to the victims and their families, as reported in The Hindu.
A Division Bench comprising Justices A.Y. Kogje and Samir Dave dismissed all appeals filed by the convicts challenging the February 2022 judgment of the special court. The Bench also allowed the State government’s plea seeking confirmation of the death sentences awarded by the trial court.
The High Court directed the Gujarat government to pay ₹10 lakh as compensation to the next of kin of each person killed in the blasts and ₹5 lakh to those who suffered grievous injuries. The compensation is to be disbursed before 30 March 2027.
The case relates to the serial bomb blasts that struck Ahmedabad on 26 July 2008. Twenty-one explosions occurred across different parts of the city within a span of approximately 70 minutes, killing 56 people and injuring more than 200 others.
Several explosions also took place at hospitals where victims from earlier blast sites had been taken for treatment, marking what investigators described as the first known instance of hospitals being targeted during a terrorist attack in India.
The investigation resulted in a joint trial after 35 cases were clubbed together, comprising 20 FIRs registered in Ahmedabad in connection with the 21 blasts and 15 cases from Surat, where several improvised explosive devices (IEDs) had been planted but failed to explode.
A total of 78 accused stood trial before the special court, which convicted 49 of them in February 2022. Among those convicted were former Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) leader Safdar Nagori and several of his associates from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and other states.
The February 2022 judgment was the first instance in India’s judicial history where a court awarded the death penalty to 38 convicts in a single case.
Special Public Prosecutor Amit Patel stated that the prosecution had placed all available evidence against the accused before the High Court. He said the appeals were heard extensively over more than one-and-a-half years, with day-to-day hearings being conducted from February before the court reserved its verdict.
Reacting to the judgment, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi described it as one of the strongest verdicts delivered against terrorism in India. He said the High Court had upheld near-total convictions while confirming the maximum punishment awarded to those found guilty.
Sanghavi, who also holds the Home portfolio, stated that the judgment was significant not only for Ahmedabad and Gujarat but also for the entire country and peace-loving nations across the world, as it conveyed that terrorism would not be tolerated.
He described the verdict as one of the biggest legal victories against terrorism and a landmark in India’s judicial history. On behalf of the people of Gujarat, he thanked the Gujarat High Court, the special court and the investigating agencies for their efforts in securing the convictions.
According to Sanghavi, the investigation team had worked for years without legal lapses or compromising the investigation, ultimately making the verdict possible. He said justice had finally been delivered to the victims, their families and the people of Gujarat after years of legal proceedings.
The Deputy Chief Minister further stated that the judgment reaffirmed that there was no place for terrorism or anti-national activities in India and said it would stand as a milestone in the country’s fight against terrorism.
Referring to the High Court’s compensation order, Sanghavi said the Gujarat government under Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel would implement the directions by providing ₹10 lakh to the families of those killed and ₹5 lakh to victims who sustained grievous injuries. He added that the State government stood firmly with the affected families and would ensure that the compensation was disbursed without delay.
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