E-Paper
POTA court convicts five in Ahmedabad blast case
A special POTA court in Ahmedabad sentenced five people to 10 years' imprisonment each.
A special POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) court in Ahmedabad sentenced five people to 10 years' imprisonment each in connection with the tiffin bomb blasts in city buses four years ago.
Judge Sonia Gokani, delivering his 362-page judgement, also imposed a fine of Rs 27,000 on each of the accused under different sections of POTA, the Indian Penal Code, the Explosive Substances Act, he Bombay Police Act and the Damage of Public Property Act.
The judge found five of the 17 accused guilty for the explosions in five city buses on May 29, 2002, injuring 23 people in an act seeking vengeance against the post-Godhra violence.
The crude explosive devices were hidden in tiffin boxes.
The other 12 were acquitted for want of evidence against them.
Police had registered the complaint in five different police stations in the city after the explosions, but no arrest had taken place for a year after the blasts.
It was after the assassination of former state home minister Haren Pandya in 2003, that police arrested 23 persons in the tiffin bomb blast case.
They later released four, as charges could not be filed against them. Seventeen accused were tried in POTA court.
