E-Paper
Waliullah Khan, convicted in 2006 Varanasi blasts case, awarded death sentence
A court in Ghaziabad also sentenced Waliullah Khan to life imprisonment on an attempt to murder charge and ordered him to pay fines.
Terror convict Waliullah Khan was sentenced to death on Monday for the serial blasts that had rocked Varanasi claiming at least 20 lives in 2006.
On Saturday, district sessions judge Jitendra Kumar Sinha in Ghaziabad had convicted Khan, but reserved the pronouncement on the quantum of punishment. The death sentence will now have to be confirmed by the Allahabad high court.
The court also sentenced Khan to life imprisonment on an attempt to murder charge and ordered him to pay fines.
On Monday, Khan was brought to the district court from Dasna Jail under tight security, overseen by a deputy superintendent of police.
The blasts had taken place 16 years ago at Varanasi’s Sankat Mochan Hanuman temple and a railway station.
A special task force had claimed in 2006 that Khan was linked to Bangladesh-based terror outfit Harkat-ul-Jehad al-Islami and was the mastermind of the blasts.
The first blast took place at 6.15pm on March 7, 2006 inside the crowded Sankat Mochan temple in the Lanka police station area. After 15 minutes, a bomb exploded outside the first-class retiring room at Varanasi Cantonment railway station.
At least 20 people were killed and about 100 were injured in the two explosions.
The same day, a pressure cooker bomb was also found near the railings of a railway crossing in the Dashashwamedh police station area.
Khan was convicted in two cases lodged under the Indian Penal Code sections of murder and attempt to murder, and under the Explosives Act.
He was acquitted in a third case due to lack of evidence, a senior official said.
Lawyers in Varanasi had refused to plead the case and the Allahabad high court then transferred it to the Ghaziabad district court.
In all three cases, 121 witnesses were produced before the court.
(With inputs from agencies)
