Ahmedabad: A special court on Friday pronounced death sentence to 38 out of 49 convicts and  11 convicts have been sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blast case. 

Post-court judgement, the special public prosecutor Amit Patel said, " A special court in Gujarat pronounced the death sentence to 38 out of 49 convicts in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blast case. Eleven others have been sentenced to life imprisonment by the court". 

The accused have been convicted under Section 302 (murder) of IPC & UAPA, the special public prosecutor, Amit Patel further added.

After a protracted trial that lasted almost 13 years, a special court last week delivered its verdict, holding 49 guilty in the 2008 serial blasts case in which Ahmedabad was rocked by a series of bomb blasts that left 56 dead and 200 injured.

Read: https://24x7liveindia.com/gujarat-police-cracked-2008-ahmedabad-blasts-case-in-3-weeks

The court has acquitted 28 other accused. As many as 77 faced trial in the case.

The 2008 Ahmedabad bombings were a series of 21 bomb blasts that hit Ahmedabad, India, on 26 July 2008, within a span of 70 minutes. Fifty-six people were killed and over 200 people were injured.

At least eight to nine accused in the case are still on the run, it was stated during the hearing.  The accused were facing charges of murder, criminal conspiracy, and have been booked under relevant provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The trial merged 35 separated cases as a single case and was heard in a special court of Judge A. R. Patel in Ahmedabad. The trial began in 2009 and lasted for about 13 years. The hearing was concluded in September 2021.

(With agency inputs)