Ahmedabad 2008 serial blasts case verdict deferred as judge tests Covid-19 +ve

A special court here on Tuesday deferred the verdict in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts case as the judge concerned has tested positive for coronavirus a senior public prosecutor saidThe court is now likely to pronounce the verdict on February 8 but the judge would confirm the date a few days in advance he saidAt least 56 people were killed and over 200 injured in 21 bomb blasts that had hit Ahmedabad city within a span of 70 minutes on July 26 2008The verdict in the 2008 serial bomb blasts case was to be delivered today but special judge A R Patel tested positive for the coronavirus on January 30 and is under home isolation senior public prosecutor Sudhir Brahmbhatt told reportersNow February 8 has been kept as the date for the verdict The judge has however made it clear that he will confirm a few days in advance whether the verdict will be finally delivered on February 8 For now the court has kept February 8 as the date for the judgement he saidThe police had claimed that people associated with the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen IM a faction of radicals of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India SIMI were involved in the blastsIt was alleged that the IM terrorists had planned these blasts as a revenge for the 2002 postGodhra riots in which several people from the minority community had diedDays after the serial blasts in Ahmedabad the police recovered bombs from different parts of Surat following which 20 FIRs were registered in Ahmedabad and 15 in SuratThe trial was conducted after the court merged all the 35 FIRsThe trial which began in December 2009 was conducted against 78 people But the number of accused later came down to 77 after one of them turned an approver during the course of trialFour more accused were eventually arrested in the case but their trial has not yet commenced a senior government lawyer saidOver 1100 witnesses were examined by the prosecution The accused are facing charges of murder and criminal conspiracy and have also been booked under relevant provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPAThe special court initially used to sit in the Sabarmati Central Jail to hear the case and the proceedings were later conducted mostly through videoconferencingPromotedListen to the latest songs only on JioSaavncomWhen the trial was underway some of the accused had allegedly tried to escape by digging a 213feet long tunnel in the jail in 2013 The trial for the jailbreak attempt is still pendingThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever