More than a decade after a series of blasts rocked the courts in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi, the two accused in the case have been awarded life imprisonment by a special court in Lucknow on Monday, 27 August, ANI reported.
Special judge Babita Rani, who heard the case in district jail Lucknow, concluded on Thursday, 23 August, that Azamgarh resident Mohammad Tariq Qasmi and Mohammmad Akhtar, who hailed from Ramban in Jammu and Kashmir, were guilty, PTI reported.
The third accused in the case – Khalid Mohammad – had died during the course of the trial. While, the fourth accused – Sajjadur Rehman was earlier given a clean chit.
According to government lawyer M K Singh, the accused had been chargesheeted for sedition, criminal conspiracy and attempted murder under the Indian Penal Code, PTI reported.
The accused had also been booked under Explosive Substances Act and Prevention of Unlawful Activities Act. The prosecution had produced 44 witnesses in support of its case while the defense examined its three witnesses.
STF Earlier Stated The Accused Were HuJI Operatives
A series of blasts took place in courts at Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi on 23 November, 2007. Several people died in Varanasi and Faizabad but there was no casualty in Lucknow.
For Lucknow blasts, the FIR was registered in the Wazirganj police station on same day.
During the course of probe, on 22 December, 2007, the Special Task Force (STF) arrested Tariq Kajmi of Rani ki Sarai village in Sarai Meer police station area of Azamgarh. While, Mohammad Akhtar of Kashmir was arrested on 27 December.
The STF had then stated that the four were operatives of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI). They also accused Mohammad Tariq in a case of a blast in Gorakhpur in May 2007.
Later, the Lucknow court blast case was transferred to the anti-terror squad (ATS), which submitted the chargesheet against the accused in April, 2008.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI.)
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