With the Supreme Court on Wednesday lifting the stay on the trial of 2008 serial blasts in Ahmedabad and planting of bombs in Surat,the decks have been cleared for conducting the trial in a special designated court in Ahmedabad. According to the investigating agency Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) the blasts in Ahmedabad and the planting of bombs in Surat were part of a single conspiracy by Indian Mujahideen (IM) and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI). Both the cases have been ordered to be clubbed together and trial in those cases will be conducted by the designated court. Initially,the trial judge for the designated court was Sessions Judge Bela Trivedi. One of the defence lawyers in the case had expressed lack of faith in the court of Judge Trivedi,who was later elevated and transferred to the Rajasthan High Court. The Gujarat government has appointed three Special Public Prosecutors (SPPs) in the case. One of the SPPs,Mitesh Amin,said the DCB has,so far,filed 106 chargesheets in the 25 cases from Ahmedabad and Surat. The police had solved the case within a month by arresting people from as far as Karnataka,Kerala,Maharashtra,Delhi,and Andhra Pradesh,besides Gujarat. So far,the DCB has arrested 65 accused while nearly 30 others are absconding,including masterminds Abdul Subhan alias Tauqeer,Amir Raza Khan,Iqbal Bhatkal and Riyaz Bhatkal. One of the chief conspirators,Riaz Bhatkal,was reported to have died. But Ahmedabad police commissioner Sudhir Sinha last week said the news about Bhatkals death appeared to be a rumour. We believe that Riaz Bhatkal is alive and active,too, he told mediapersons. Last week,Vadodara police arrested one Danish Riaz,a resident of Ranchi in Jharkhand,in this connection. During interrogation,Riaz reportedly told the police that he had given shelter to Tauqeer,Mujib Sheikh,Mohammed Ismail and other accused and also helped them financially. Riaz had allegedly attended a training camp at Waghmon jungles in Kerala.
