Eleven years after twin bomb blasts rocked the city of Hyderabad claiming over 40 lives, a local court here today pronounced its verdict in the case. In its judgment, the court convicted two of the arrested accused and acquitted two others in the case. The court said that it will pronounce its verdict on the fifth accused on Monday, the day quantum of punishment will be announced. The two who were held guilty are – Aneeq Shafeeq Sayeed and Ismail Chaudhary, news agency ANI reported.
“Aneeq Shafeeq Sayeed & Ismail Chaudhary convicted. Two people acquitted. Court to pronounce judgement on 1 more accused on September 10. Two more accused are absconding,” Seshu Reddy, Special Public Prosecutor for Counter Intelligence, told reporters outside the court.
The judgment was likely to be delivered on August 27 but second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge T Srinivas Rao deferred the judgment to September 4.
On August 25, 2007, two bombs had exploded simultaneously in the city that had left 44 dead and 68 injured. While the first bomb exploded in Lumbini Amusement Park, the second bomb exploded in Gokul Chat Bhandar. Two more bombs were also defused in other parts of the city.
“It has already been 11 years. I demand that the accused be given the strictest punishment so that they understand the pain we are going through,” Raheem, the survivor of the twin bombings, said.
The Counter Intelligence (CI) wing of the Telangana Police had probed the case and arrested five accused. All arrested accused were operatives of Indian Mujahideen that was declared a terror group and banned by the government in 2010. Those who were arrested — Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chowdhari, Aneeq Shafique Sayeed, Farooq Sharfuddin Tarkash, Mohammed Sadiq Israr Ahmed Shaik and Tarik Anjum, are currently lodged in Cherlapalli Central Prison.
The CI had filed four chargesheets in the case against the arrested five accused. It had also named two other absconding accused, Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal. All the accused were charged under Section 302 (murder) and other relevant provisions of the IPC and sections of Explosive Substances Act.
