HYDERABAD: Eleven years after two powerful blasts ripped through crowded places in the city killing 44 persons and injuring 68, a local court on Tuesday convicted two terror operatives in the Gokul Chat-Lumbini Park blast cases. However, two other accused were acquitted for want of evidence.
Aneeq Shafique Sayeed, a 36-year-old computer centre owner from Bhagyodaya Nagar in Pune, and Md
Akbar Ismail Chowdhari, 35, a mobile phone repairer from Meeta Nagar in Pune, were convicted for setting off blasts at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat Centre on August 25, 2007. The II Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court, Nampally, which is functioning from the Cherlapally Central Jail, would pronounce the quantum of punishment on September 10. The prosecution has decided to seek capital punishment for the convicts.
“The court has convicted two of the four accused, including Aneeq and Akbar, who were charged in the twin blasts cases. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on Monday," K Surender, counsel for the Counter Intelligence Cell of
Telangana, told TOI.
No sufficient evidence, two accused acquitted
While Akbar and Aneeq were convicted in the twin blasts cases, the court has acquitted two other accused — Farooq Sharfuddin Tarqash, 35, an employee of an advertising agency ‘T’ Caption Outdoor in Camp Area of Pune, and Md Sadiq Israr Shaik, 42, a ‘desktop engineer’ working for CMS Computers in Andheri (East) of Mumbai, citing lack of sufficient evidence.
In three cases related to the two terror blasts and recovery of an unexploded bomb, seven persons were named accused. Of them, three, including
Indian Mujahideen founder
Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Bhatkal and Amir Reza Khan, are on the run.
The CI Cell had filed a separate case against another accused, Tariq Anjum, 34, a Delhibased engineer from Bihar, who was arrested in 2012 and charged for providing shelter for IM operatives Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal after the twin blasts. Judgment in Tariq’s case might be delivered on September 10.
The investigating agencies had filed three chargesheets in connection with the blast cases. The judgment was pronounced by T Srinivasa Rao, who is incharge judge of the II Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court. The four accused were produced before the judge. During the court proceedings, lawyers for the prosecution said Aneeq had planted a bomb at Lumbini Park, while Riyaz Bhatkal planned and executed the Gokul Chat blast. The third bomb, hung to a parked bike at Dilsukhnagar by Ismail Chowdhari, did not explode.
Riyaz Bhatkal planned and executed the Gokul Chat blast.
