Hyderabad: The Telangana high court on Tuesday (April 8) upheld the death sentence awarded by a trial court to five people accused in the twin bomb blasts by terrorists at the bustling Dilsukhnagar in Hyderabad on February 21, 2013, which resulted in the killing of 18 people and injuries to 131 others.>
A special fast-track court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) at the Charlapalli jail in Hyderabad had convicted the five accused to death by hanging under stringent anti-terror laws in 2016.>
The accused are Ahmad Siddibappa Zarar, alias Yasin Bhatkal; Asadullah Akhtar, alias Haddi; Tahseen Akhtar; Zia-ur-Rahman, alias Waqas; and Aijaz Shekh.>
Bhatkal is the co-founder of the banned Indian Mujahideen.>
The prime accused in the case, Mohammed Riaz alias Riaz Bhatkal, is reported to have taken shelter in Pakistan. A red corner notice was issued against him.>
The court pronounced the five guilty on December 13, 2016, but the death sentence was awarded six days later.>
The NIA court had convicted the five individuals, deeming the crime as among the “rarest of rare” and sentenced them to death.>
The accused had challenged their conviction along with a criminal appeal in the high court.>
Today, a bench comprising Justice K. Laxman and Justice P. Srisudha upheld the NIA court’s verdict, noting the severity of the act and the credibility of the evidence.>
The sensational twin blasts – the first took place in front of a roadside kiosk selling chilli bajjis at around 7 pm and the second two minutes later at the Dilsukhnagar bus stand across the road, 100 meters away – received nationwide attention.>
Improvised explosive devices loaded in tiffin boxes and hung from bicycles were planted at the spots.>
CCTV footage from cameras affixed to a traffic signal nearby had revealed the movement of five persons but their faces were not seen clearly.>
Initially, the Saroornagar and Malakpet police stations had registered FIRs in two cases under their jurisdictional limits, but they were transferred to the NIA at the intervention of the Union home ministry.>
Then-Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had said the government had intelligence reports that Pakistan-aided terrorist groups would resort to the act but that there was no specific information about where they would be carried out.>
The arrest of Yasin Bhatkal and Asadullah Akhtar at the Bihar-Nepal border months later resulted in the cracking of the case.>
Their accomplices Tahseen Akhtar and Zia-ur-Rehman were picked up from the Bihar and Pakistan border in Rajasthan respectively in May 2014.>
The last named person, Aijaz Sheikh, was arrested in Pune.>
All of them had served their time in various jails since.>
Yasin Bhatkal is presently lodged in Tihar jail in Delhi in connection with a blast in the capital in 2008.>
Apart from him, all others were also identified as operatives of the Indian Mujahideen.>
Incidentally, the blasts occurred close to the famous Saibaba temple at Dilsukhnagar where another explosion by terrorists in 2002 had claimed two lives and caused injuries to 15 others.>
