2008 Jaipur blasts: Rajasthan HC acquits all four who got death penalty

A division bench of Justices Pankaj Bhandari and Sameer Jain acquitted Mohammed Sarvar Azmi, Mohammed Saif, Saifurrehman Ansari and Mohammed Salman by setting aside a 2019 trial court order sentencing them to death.

71 people were killed, 185 injured in the serial blasts in Jaipur. (File)

Advocate Syed Saadat Ali, who was part of the defence counsel, said the court also ruled that Mohammed Salman was a juvenile at the time of the incident.

He said senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan also appeared for the four accused. A trial is currently going on in another case related to the blast, where a live bomb was found. Ali said that apart from those acquitted so far, there are no other accused in the case.

Additional Government Counsel Rekha Madnani, who appeared on behalf of the prosecution, said the state government will file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the acquittal.

On May 13, 2008, nine bombs exploded in eight locations — all in Jaipur’s crowded old city — between 7.20 pm and 7.45 pm. The Indian Mujahideen, then a little-known organisation, claimed responsibility for the attack in an email sent a day later to media organisations.

“It is apparent that the investigation was not fair and it appears that nefarious means were employed by the Investigating Agencies, material witnesses required to unfold the events were withheld and apparent manipulations and fabrications have been done during the investigation. We therefore deem it proper, in the interest of society, justice and morality, to direct the Director General of Police, Rajasthan, to initiate appropriate enquiry/disciplinary proceedings against the erring officers of the investigating team,” said the court in its judgement.

“For the reasons stated above, we hold that the Investigation Agency in the given case should be made responsible/accountable for their negligent, cursory and inefficient actions. In the given case, for the reasons stated above, in spite of the case being of heinous nature, 71 persons losing their lives and 185 persons sustaining injuries, causing unrest in the lives of every citizen, not just in the city of Jaipur, but all across the country, we deem it appropriate to direct the Director General of Rajasthan Police to initiate appropriate Enquiry/Disciplinary Proceedings against the erring officers of the Investigating Team,” the court added.

In 2019, the trial court, while convicting the four aforementioned people, had acquitted a fifth accused, Shahbaz Hussain, said his advocate Akhil Chaudhary.

The High Court Wednesday also upheld Hussain’s acquittal by the trial court in 2019.

“This case is a classic example of institutional failure resulting in botched/flawed/shoddy investigation. We fear this isn’t the first case to suffer due to failure of investigation agencies and if things are allowed to continue the way they are, this certainly won’t be the last case in which administration of justice is affected due to shoddy investigation. Therefore, we direct the State, the Chief Secretary in particular, to look into the matter, which is in the larger public interest,” said the court in its judgement.

In its judgement, the court said the investigators lacked the required legal skills as they were not aware about the statutory prerequisites and mandatory requirements.

“They have approached this case in a callous manner i.e. unbecoming of the members of uniformed posts. The approach of the Investigation Agency was plagued by insufficient legal knowledge, lack of proper training and insufficient expertise of investigation procedure, especially on issues like cyber crimes and even basic issues like admissibility of evidence. The failure on the part of the Investigation Agency has frustrated the case of the prosecution and the evidence so recorded is not fulfilling the chain of evidence,” said the court in its judgement.

The first of the 2008 IED blasts took place near Manak Chowk. It was followed by blasts in and around Badi Chaupar, Johari Bazaar, the Sanganeri Gate Hanuman temple, Choti Chaupar, Tripolia Bazar, a police station and the Chandpole Hanuman temple. A live bomb was also found on a bicycle near a shop in front of the Chandpole Ramchandraji temple before being defused.

The court questioned the credibility of identification parades conducted to identify the accused and highlighted anomalies in evidence such as bills of the cycles purchased.

“Before we conclude, we must place on record the fact that we are not unaware of the degree of agony and frustration that may be caused to the society in general and the families of the victims in particular by the fact that a heinous crime like this goes unpunished but, then law does not permit the Courts to punish the accused on the basis of moral conviction or on suspicion alone,” the court said in the judgement.

In a statement, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a rights forum, appealed to the state of Rajasthan to not seek a stay of the acquittal.

“Immediate action should be taken against the police who fabricated cases against the five, who spent 15 years in jail due to a delayed trial and a bad judgement of the trial court. They should get just compensation from the Government of Rajasthan for the false case, which caused these innocent young men to lose 15 years of life. Their families suffered the stigma of having produced “terrorists”,” said PUCL national president Kavita Srivastava in a statement.

The opposition, BJP, trained its guns on the Congress government after the judgement.

“The acquittal in such a heinous crime raises questions on the Ashok Gehlot-led Rajasthan government’s prosecution. The ATS presented clipped evidence. I feel this is also a sign of the appeasement policy of the Gehlot government,” said former BJP president Satish Poonia in a statement after the judgement.