Rajasthan High Court acquits all four convicts in 2008 Jaipur serial bomb blasts case
Jaipur (IANS) | The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday acquitted four convicts in the May 13, 2008 Jaipur serial blasts case. A division bench of Justice Pankaj Bhandari and Justice Sameer Jain acquitted the four convicts who had filed 28 appeals in the High Court. The hearing on this entire matter was going on for 48 days.
The bench in its judgment reportedly said that the investigating officer did not have legal knowledge. Therefore, instructions have been given to the DGP to take action against the investigating officer as well. The court has also asked the chief secretary to conduct an inquiry by the investigating officer.
Advocate Syed Sadat Ali, representing the accused, said that the High Court has misconstrued the entire theory of the ATS, hence the accused have been acquitted.
He said the sessions court had awarded death sentence to the four accused. “We came to the High Court against that decision. One of the accused is a minor. The court has accepted that he was 16 years old at the time of the incident. The court acquitted the accused saying there was no evidence. ATS against the accused And the prosecution has not been able to prove the allegations. Neither the planting of the bomb has been proved nor it has been proved that the accused had bought the cycle.”
While pronouncing the verdict, the court made strong remarks about the investigating officer. The court ordered the Rajasthan DGP to take action against Rajendra Singh Nayan, Jai Singh and retired IPS officer Mahendra Chaudhary, who was the investigating officer in the case. In the 10-page judgment, the court said that the police’s theory does not match with the entire case.
On 13 May 2008, there were serial bombings at 8 places in the walled city. In these, 71 people died, while 185 people were injured. The court found Mohd Saif, Saifur Rehman, Sarwar Azmi and Mohd Salman guilty of murder, sedition and under the Explosives Act.
In this case, the police had made a total of 13 people accused. Three accused are still absconding, while two are lodged in jails in Hyderabad and Delhi. The remaining two criminals have been killed in the Batla House encounter in Delhi. The four accused were lodged in Jaipur jail and were sentenced to death by the trial court.
Former BJP state president Satish Poonia said, “The acquittal of the four convicts in such a big crime by the High Court casts doubt on the advocacy of the Ashok Gehlot government of Rajasthan.”
“The manner in which the evidence was presented by the ATS, and later clipped and edited, and the manner in which the court observed that the prosecution was not conducted properly and the evidence was not properly brought out,” he said. Suspicion arises.”
–IANS
