More than 15 years after the attack on Akshardam temple in Gandhinagar, the Ahmedabad crime branch on Saturday arrested key accused Ajmeri Abdul Rashid, who had allegedly hatched the conspiracy and fled to Riyadh after the attack.
Acquitted by SC
Rashid is one of the 28 absconding accused in the case and was arrested by the Crime Branch from the city airport as he was returning from Riyadh. His brother Adam Ajmeri was also a key accused.
Rashid was awarded the death sentence by the trial court, but the Supreme Court acquitted him along with a few others.
In 2014, the Supreme Court had acquitted all six accused who were convicted by the trial court for the terror attack in September 2002. Over 30 pilgrims were gunned down by two terrorists who were subsequently killed by the National Security Guards (NSG) commandos specially flown in from the national capital.
Of those six accused, three were awarded the death sentence by the special trial court in 2006 and the Gujarat High Court had confirmed it in 2010.
The Supreme Court had slammed the Gujarat police for shoddy investigation in the sensational terror attack case.
Interestingly, Ajmeri’s arrest comes two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the Akshardham temple’s silver jubilee celebrations on Wednesday in Gandhinagar.