Serial blasts: 30 in Gujarat high court against death penalty

AHMEDABAD: Thirty of the 38 convicts who were sentenced to death in the 2008 serial blasts case have approached the Gujarat high court challenging their conviction, contending that death penalty cannot be awarded in a case that relies on circumstantial evidence.
The bench of Justice V M Pancholi and Justice A P Thaker have admitted the appeal. The case will be heard along with the state government's application for confirmation of the death sentence.
The bench admitted the appeal by pardoning the 115-day delay in filing the appeal after receipt of the trial court's judgment. The special court awarded death penalty to 38 persons and life imprisonment to 11 others in February for carrying out the terror strike on July 26, 2008, that killed 56 persons and injured more than 200.
The convicts filed their appeal through advocates M M Shaikh and Khalid Shaikh, who requested the high court for a stay on the order of conviction and death penalty. The HC rejected the request and asked them to file a separate application for the same.
In their appeal that runs into more than 180 pages, they contended that the entire case of the prosecution was based on circumstantial evidence, which was not proved independently and jointly.
The trial court relied on panchnamas, statements recorded under section 164 of the CrPC by an approver, confessional statements which were retracted later, and evidence given by an accomplice, but they were not to be believed, the plea stated.
When the case was based on circumstantial evidence, it was not proper to hand down death penalty on part of the trial court, the plea argued.
In February, while convicting 49 persons in the serial blasts case, the trial court had acquitted 28 accused by giving them the benefit of doubt and pardoned one person who had turned an approver. The case pertained to bombings in Ahmedabad and planting of 29 bombs in Surat city.