Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind to challenge Ahmedabad court verdict on 2008 serial blasts

Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind President Maulana Arshad Madani on Saturday said that they will challenge the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts verdict of the special court in the High Court and if needed will approach the Supreme Court.

Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh):Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind President Maulana Arshad Madani on Saturday said that they will challenge the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts verdict of the special court in the High Court and if needed will approach the Supreme Court. A special court in Gujarat on Friday pronounced death sentences to 38 out of 49 convicts in the serial blast case.

In a statement, Maulana Arshad Madani said that the decision of the special court is "unbelievable" while adding, “We will go to the High Court against the punishment and continue the legal battle”. “We are sure that these people will get full justice from the High Court, in many cases, the guilty convicted by the lower courts have been acquitted by the High Court or Supreme Court,” Madani said.

Giving the example of the 2002 Akshardham temple attack, he said the lower court sentenced three including Mufti Abdul Qayyum to death and four were given life imprisonment which was then upheld by the Gujarat High Court. “But when the matter reached the Supreme Court, all the people were acquitted but the court reprimanded the Gujarat Police for falsely plotting to implicate innocent people in the bomb blasts,” he added.

He also said that he hopes to get relief in this matter and if there is a need in the case then they will also move to the Supreme Court. Referring to the earlier cases, Maulana Madani said that after the 11 accused who were earlier sentenced to death by the lower courts and High Courts, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind fought the case in the Supreme Court and not a single accused was given death sentence.

“Earlier in the Akshardham temple, Ahmedabad case, three people were sentenced to death by the trial court, seven people were sentenced to death in the case of an attack on the US consulate and one accused was sentenced to death by the Mumbai sessions court. But with the efforts of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, seven accused were acquitted with respect, while the sentence of two persons was reduced to seven years,” he said.

Earlier on February 8, a Gujarat court convicted 49 accused and acquitted 28 others in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blast case. Within a span of 70 minutes as many as 21 bomb blasts had taken place in Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008.

(With agency inputs)