62 formally charged in Ahmedabad serial blasts case

GANDHINAGAR - Hearing in the Ahmedabad serial blasts case is expected to begin Jan 19 with charge sheets being framed against 62 accused in the bombings that killed 57 people and left over 150 injured on July 26, 2008,

The charge sheet was filed in the special court of Bela Trivedi, which will be conducting the proceedings inside the Sabarmati Central Jail at Ahmedabad, for security considerations.

The serial blasts carried out in close proximity to one another and beginning with Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency of Maninagar had shocked the country.

The blasts saw the targeting of hospitals where the injured victims of the citywide blasts were being brought, highlighting the considerable planning that went into it.

Of the 57 fatalities, 24 died in the blasts at the Government Civil Hospital where the injured in the serial blasts were being brought in. The 24 included doctors, nursing staff and even good Samaritans besides those injured in earlier blasts elsewhere.

A countrywide manhunt led to the identification of 95 accused of whom three are dead and 33 still absconding. The remaining 62 were present when the charges arraigning them were read out. These include waging a war against the state, conspiracy, murder, attempt to murder and organising training camps to promote terror activities.

The charge sheet lists Abu Bashar as the fountainhead of the conspiracy, along with Zahid Sheikh, Qayamuddin and Abdul Razak as the masterminds. Abu was picked up from his village in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh and flown to Ahmedabad by a special plane.

Though the explosions were carried out in July 2008, the planning, according to the statements by Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) key men Safdar Nagori and Amir Parvez, began at a meeting in Ahmedabad in November 2007.

The charge sheet chronicles the planning and points out how cars were stolen from Mumbai, packed with explosives and used to carry out some of the blasts. The improvisation wherein bicycles were purchased and fitted with explosives to carry out the blasts in some of the places and the corroborative evidence pieced together has been painstakingly worked out.