JAIPUR: The high court on Thursday granted bail to one of the accused in the Jaipur bomb blast case.
Shahbaz Ahmed, 43, was charged with sending an e-mail claiming responsibility for the blasts. A resident of Lucknow, Ahmed was the first to be arrested three months after the blasts. He was acquitted in all the cases for want of evidence.
He was acquitted by the trial court, and ATS filed an appeal in the high court against his acquittal. But the ATS filed chargesheet only after six months of his acquittal.
When the court asked why the ATS took so much time to file the chargesheet, to which the prosecution failed to give a satisfactory reply, based on which the court granted bail to the accused.
The ATS claimed that he had planted the bomb outside the Hanuman temple at Chandpole, but the bomb did not explode. The prosecution said since the others in the case were given punishment, Ahmed, also guilty of the same offence, should not be let off as it was only a chance that the bomb didn’t explode.
On December 17, 2019, the special court dealing with Jaipur bomb blast case had convicted four people for the worst-ever terror attack in Jaipur — eight bombs that ripped through the Walled City on May 13, 2008, killing 71 and injuring hundreds.
The special court awarded death penalty to all the other four accused under various sections of the IPC, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and the Explosives Act, in eight cases registered by the ATS.