A division bench of Rajasthan High Court, on Wednesday, set aside the conviction of four accused in the Jaipur serial bomb blasts case and ‘answered negatively’ to the death reference (capital punishment).

The serial blasts on May 13, 2008 had left 80 people dead and 176 others injured. After 11 years and eight months on December 20, 2019, a Jaipur court had sentenced each of the four convicts to capital punishment for the terrorist act in the Jaipur serial bomb blast case.

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Today, a division bench of Justice Pankan Bhandari and Justice Sameer Jain acquitted the four convicts, Saifur Rehman, Sarwar Azami, Mohd Salman and Mohd Saif, a high court lawyer Syed Sadat Ali, who filed their appeals and contested the case, told SNS.

“It was the oral judgement and the judgement copy would be available on March 31 morning,” the lawyer said.

According to the lawyer, the entire prosecution theory was concocted and contrary to the material and evidence available on record. The Jaipur Trial Court grossly neglected the material and evidence available on the record. The division bench also said that the state government should take necessary action against the incompetent investigating officers.

In 2019, the trial court had given the death sentence to four under various sections of IPC including 302 for murder and 16-1 (A) of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and explosions act for terror act and fined them each of Rs.50,000.

Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Rajasthan Police has investigated the case and had charged 13 accused in four charge-sheets in nine cases covering blasts that occurred at eight places.

Bombs ripped off after 7:30 pm on May 13, 2008 in the walled city of Jaipur, especially near temples in Tripoliya Bazar, Chandpole Hanuman temple, National Handloom in Jauhari Bazar, Chotti Chaupad, and Sanganer Gate Hanuman temple, in a 2 km radius.  The bombs strapped in nine ammonium nitrate bases were tied to bicycles by the accused.

According to ATS records, six other accused, Asudulla, Ahmed Siddiqui, Ariz, Sazid, Mohd Khalid and Shadab, were still at large. Altogether, there were 1,296 witnesses of whom 1,272 testified in the case, while the defence could produce only 24 witnesses.