Abdul Karim Tunda acquitted by Rohtak court in 1997 twin blasts case

In a case related to the 1997 twin bomb blasts in Haryana’s Rohtak city, the district and sessions court on Friday acquitted Abdul Karim aka Tunda, who was once considered by police to be a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim.

The first blast took place in the city’s vegetable market and the second blast on Qila Road, about 30 minutes later. Although nobody died in these blasts, several got injured. Police booked Tunda, a native of Pilkhua village of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, in the case, but he fled out of the country. It was in 2013 that Delhi Police nabbed him when he entered Indian territory from Nepal.

The Rohtak court reserved its verdict in the matter on Monday after the completion of arguments from both sides.

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Currently lodged at a prison in Ajmer, Rajasthan, Tunda appeared in the Rohtak court through videoconferencing on Friday.

For the past 26 years, he had been facing trial in the twin blasts case and pleading “not guilty”. His counsel, advocate Vineet Verma, said the case was expedited because of the long pendency of the trial. Already acquitted in two other cases, Tunda is facing three more criminal cases in other states.