New Delhi, The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of the death sentence handed down to an Indian Mujahideen operative for his role in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts that left 56 people dead.
Forty-nine people were convicted by the special court. Seventy-eight people were put on trial after 35 police cases 20 relating to the Ahmedabad blasts and 15 linked to unexploded bombs recovered in Surat were merged.
On July 7, the high court upheld the death sentences of 38 operatives of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen in the serial-bomb-blasts case. On October 1, the apex court stayed the execution of the death penalty of Ahmed Bawa alias Abbu Abubakar Barelvi, one of the convicts in the case. The high court had rejected all the appeals filed by the convicts and confirmed the February 2022 judgment of a special court, which had sentenced 38 convicts to death and 11 to life imprisonment. The high court had said the criminal antecedents and roles of the 38 convicts had established that they had carried out a terrorist act warranting the death penalty.
The apex court asked the Gujarat government to place the reports of all probation officers relating to the appellant before it within eight weeks.
“There shall be stay of execution of the death sentence awarded to the appellant ,” the top court said in its October 9 order.
