2008 Jaipur blasts: Four men sentenced to life imprisonment
They were convicted on April 4 in connection with a live bomb that was found near a temple and was later defused.
A court in Jaipur on Tuesday sentenced four men to life imprisonment in a case about the bomb blasts in the city in 2008, PTI reported
On May 13, 2008, nine bombs exploded within a span of 25 minutes at eight locations in Jaipur, killing 71 people and injuring 185. Another live bomb was found near a temple in Chandpole Bazar, but was later defused.
The case in which the four men were sentenced on Tuesday was about the bomb that was defused.
Mohammed Sarwar Azmi, Mohammed Saif, Saifur Rehman and Shahbaz Ahmed were convicted on Friday under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and Explosive Substances Act, PTI reported.
In December 2019, a court had awarded the death penalty to Azmi, Saif, Rehman and a man named Mohammed Salman in another case related to the blasts. However, in March 2023, the Rajasthan High Court acquitted them and also confirmed the acquittal of Shahbaz.
The state government filed an appeal against the appeal, and the case is pending before the Supreme Court.
The lawyer representing the four men said he plans to appeal against Friday’s conviction before the Rajasthan High Court.
“No witness statement was recorded by the prosecution,” the lawyer, Minhajul Haq, was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. “The facts of this case and the eight blast cases in which the accused were set free are the same. In this case too, the prosecution could not find who had placed the bicycle carrying the bomb in front of the temple.”
The Association for Protection of Civil Rights, which assisted the convicts in the case, had said in 2023, that they were falsely implicated in the case. The families of the four men have also maintained that they were framed, a statement by the non-governmental organisation said.
