News Analysis India

Tag: Ahmedabad blasts case

  • Twitter removes controversial caricature tweeted by Gujarat BJP, party says not against any religion

    By PTI

    AHMEDABAD: A day after Twitter removed a caricature tweeted by the Gujarat BJP unit on a court verdict sentencing 38 people to death in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts, the ruling party on Monday claimed the cartoon was based on real photographs and did not target any particular religion or community.

    But, the opposition Congress and some social activists hailed Twitter’s decision to remove the cartoon, and claimed the BJP was trying to gain political mileage out of the court’s judgement.

    The cartoon depicted a group of bearded men wearing skull caps hanging by a noose.

    It had a tricolour and a drawing depicting the scene of a bomb blast in the background, with “Satyamev Jayate” written on its top right corner.

    It was posted on the Gujarat BJP’s official Twitter handle on Saturday, a day after a special court here sentenced to death 38 convicts and handed life terms to 11 others in the case of 2008 serial bomb blasts in which 56 people had lost their lives and over 200 were injured.

    The caricature is not available on either the Instagram or Facebook social media pages of the state BJP unit.

    “The sketch was based on real photographs of the convicts published by newspapers a day after the verdict. The Gujarat BJP or its social media team had no intention to target any particular religion or community through the sketch,” state party unit spokesperson Dr Rutvij Patel said.

    He said when (terrorist) Osama Bin Laden was killed by American soldiers, his sketch was also published in the US.

    “Our sketch was just an artistic expression shared on social media, nothing else,” Patel said.

    Gujarat BJP’s media coordinator Yagnesh Dave on Sunday said Twitter removed the caricature after “someone had reported against it”.

    Meanwhile, state Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi welcomed Twitter’s action.

    “We firmly believe that terrorism has no religion. The Congress had lost two if its leaders – Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi – fighting terrorism. The verdicts of courts must not be seen through a political prism,” he said.

    “But, the BJP tried to take political advantage out of this (2008 Ahmedabad blasts case) judgement. This is BJP’s old tactic to remain in power. Instead of indulging in such dramas, the BJP should focus on issues concerning the common man,” the Congress leader said.

    Social activist Mujahid Nafees, who also runs an NGO for the minority community’s welfare, claimed the BJP always targets the country’s minorities, mainly Muslims and Christians, for political gains.

    “The BJP had published the cartoon with the sole purpose of reigniting polarisation in Uttar Pradesh, where elections are underway. This is an attempt to communalise the issue of terrorism. The BJP believes in divide and rule,” he alleged.

  • Justice is delayed, says kin of man acquitted in Ahmedabad blasts case

    By PTI

    RANCHI: Jahida Khatun, a 75-year-old woman of Jharkhand, was in tears after hearing that her son was acquitted in the case related to the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts that had claimed 56 lives and left over 200 injured.

    Her son, Manjar Imam, is one of the 28 people who have been acquitted in the case.

    A special court in Ahmedabad on Tuesday convicted 49 people.

    “We had full faith in the judiciary. But my son has lost 13 precious years (of his life). He got justice but it is delayed,” Khatun, a resident of Ranchi, told PTI.

    The elderly woman said her husband could not come out of the shock and died a year after the incident.

    Manjar’s brother Mohammad Safdar Imam rued that after he was branded “terrorist”, they were socially boycotted and even the children of the family could not get admission to any good school.

    “We request the government to expedite court trials so that innocent are not punished,” he said.

    Imam claimed that Manjar has not even gone to Gujarat even once but attended a religious meeting in Kerala.

    “He had been framed in the case,” he alleged.

    Imam said now the whole family is eagerly waiting for the release of Manjar, now lodged in Tihar Jail.

    The family members of the other Ranchi-based accused, Danish, who too was acquitted, refused to talk to the media.

    As many as 20 explosions had ripped through Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008.

    In his verdict, which came 13 years after the deadly blasts, special judge A R Patel acquitted 28 accused, giving them the benefit of doubt.

  • Trial in Ahmedabad serial blast case concludes after 13 years; court reserves verdict

    By PTI

    AHMEDABAD: Thirteen years after 56 people were killed in a series of bomb blasts in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad, a special court here has concluded the trial against 77 accused, while reserving its verdict in the matter.

    The prosecution examined over 1,100 witnesses in the lengthy trial, which began in December 2009, over a year after a series of bomb blasts rocked the city.

    Special judge A R Patel on Thursday announced the conclusion of the trial and reserved the order.

    At least 56 people were killed and over 200 injured in 21 bomb blasts that hit Ahmedabad city, within a span of 70 minutes, on July 26, 2008.

    The police had claimed that people associated with the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), a faction of radicals of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), were involved in the blasts.

    It was alleged that IM terrorists had planned these blasts as revenge for the 2002 post-Godhra riots, in which several persons from the minority community had died.

    Days after the serial blasts in Ahmedabad, the police recovered bombs from different parts of Surat, following which 20 FIRs were registered in Ahmedabad and 15 in Surat.

    The trial was conducted after the court merged all 35 FIRs.

    Of the 85 accused arrested by the Gujarat police over a period of time, the trial commenced against 78 persons, and the number came down to 77, after one of the accused turned an approver during the trial.

    At least eight to nine accused in the case are still on the run, it was stated.

    The accused are facing charges of murder, criminal conspiracy, and have also been booked under relevant provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

    The special court initially used to sit in the Sabarmati Central Jail to hear the case, and the proceedings were later conducted mostly through video-conferencing.

    When the trial was underway, some of the accused had allegedly tried to escape by digging a 213-feet long tunnel in the jail in 2013.

    The trial for this jailbreak attempt is still pending.