The Supreme Court on Thursday (October 1, 2026) stayed the execution of the death penalty of an operative of the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen in connection with the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts that left 56 people dead.
A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath, A. G. Masih, and Sandeep Mehta issued notice to the Gujarat government on a plea of Ahmed Bawa alias Abbu Abubakar Barelvi against the High Court verdict, which upheld the death penalty awarded to him by the trial court.
78 people were put on trial after 35 police cases — 20 FIRs relating to the Ahmedabad blast and 15 linked to unexploded bombs recovered in Surat — were merged. 49 were convicted by the Special Court.
The High Court rejected all appeals filed by the convicts and confirmed the February 2022 judgement of the Special Court, which had sentenced 38 IM members to death and 11 others to life imprisonment. The High Court had said the criminal antecedents and roles of the 38 convicts established that they had carried out a terrorist act warranting the death penalty. The Special Court’s February 2022 order marked the first time that 38 convicts were handed down the death penalty in a single case by any Court. In January 1998, a TADA court in Tamil Nadu sentenced to death all 26 convicts in the case of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
The State government had sought confirmation of the death sentences.
On July 7, the High Court, while upholding the death sentence of 38 operatives of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts case, cited the large number of casualties, the “humongous” conspiracy and the intention to spread widespread terror as key reasons for affirming the punishment.
