Jaipur: The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday acquitted four convicts in the Jaipur serial bomb blast case which rocked the state capital on May 13, 2008.
A division bench of Justices Pankaj Bhandari and Sameer Jain acquitted these four convicts who had presented 28 appeals in the High Court. The hearing on this entire case was going on for 48 days.
In its verdict, the bench reportedly said that the investigating officer did not have legal knowledge. Therefore, instructions have been given to the DGP to take action against the investigating officer as well. The court has also asked the Chief Secretary to conduct an inquiry into the investigating officer.
Syed Sadat Ali, the lawyer representing the accused, said that the High Court has termed the entire theory of ATS wrong, which is why the accused have been acquitted.
He said that four accused were sentenced to death by the sessions court. “We had come to the High Court against that decision. One of the accused is a minor. The court has accepted that he was 16 years old at the time of the incident. The court acquitted the accused by saying that there is no proof against the accused. ATS and Prosecution have not been able to prove the allegations. Neither planting bombs has been proved nor was it proved that the accused had bought the cycle.”
“The court made strong remarks about the Investigation Officer while giving the verdict. The court has ordered DGP Rajasthan to take action against Rajendra Singh Nayan, Jai Singh and retired IPS officer Mahendra Chaudhary, who were the investigating officers of the entire case. In the 10-page judgment, the court said that the theory of the police does not match with the entire case.”
On May 13, 2008, there were serial bomb blasts at 8 places in the walled city. In these, 71 people were killed, while 185 were injured. The court found Mohd Saif, Saifur Rahman, Sarwar Azmi and Mohd Salman guilty of murder, sedition and the Explosives Act.
A total of 13 people were made accused in this case by the police. Three accused are still absconding, while two are lodged in jails of Hyderabad and Delhi. The remaining two criminals have been killed in the Batla House encounter in Delhi. The four accused were lodged in Jaipur jail and were sentenced to death by the lower court.
Former BJP state chief Satish Poonia said: “The acquittal of all four convicted in such a big offense by the high court raises doubts on the advocacy of the Ashok Gehlot government of Rajasthan.
“The manner in which the evidence was presented by the ATS, and later it was clipped and edited and the manner in which the court said that the prosecution was not done properly and the evidence did not come in a proper manner, raises doubts on the side of the investigation.”
