2008 Jaipur blasts | Rights groups demand fresh probe after High Court verdict

Civil rights groups demanded a fresh investigation into the 2008 Jaipur serial blasts, which claimed 71 lives, following the acquittal of four persons in the case by the Rajasthan High Court. They also sought immediate action against the police officers who had “fabricated the cases” against the innocent persons who spent 15 years behind bars.

Civil rights groups on Thursday demanded a fresh investigation into the 2008 Jaipur serial blasts, which claimed 71 lives, following the acquittal of four persons in the case by the Rajasthan High Court. They also sought immediate action against the police officers who had “fabricated the cases” against the innocent persons who spent 15 years behind bars.

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)-Rajasthan and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) said the Congress government should pay compensation to the four accused whose conviction was set aside, and one person whose acquittal in 2019 was confirmed. “Because of the false case, delayed trial and wrong judgment of the trial court, these young men lost 15 years of life and their families suffered the stigma,” PUCL-Rajasthan president Kavita Srivastava said.

Ms. Srivastava said a fresh probe should be conducted for delivering justice to the kin of the 71 deceased and about 200 persons who were injured in the blasts on May 13, 2008. The High Court had on Wednesday held that the investigation by the police was “flawed and shoddy” and “nefarious means” were employed by the investigating team.

JIH vice-president M. Salim Engineer said justice would remain incomplete until the “real culprits”, who had planned and executed the blasts, were traced and punished. He said the guilty police officers who had framed innocent people should also be identified and punished.

The High Court had also directed the Director-General of Police to initiate appropriate inquiry and disciplinary proceedings against the erring officers of the investigating team. Ms. Srivastava urged the State government not to move for a stay on the acquittal and instead facilitate the release of the four persons from jail. The fifth accused, Shahbaz Ahmed, was released three years ago.

The four persons — Mohammed Saif, Mohammed Sarwar Azmi, Saifur Rehman and Mohammed Salman — belonging to Uttar Pradesh, were apprehended by the police forces of others States in Delhi and different towns in U.P. Their custody was obtained by the Rajasthan Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) after the controversial Batla House encounter, which took place in Delhi on September 19, 2008.

Lawyer Syed Saadat Ali, who represented the four accused in the High Court, said they had been re-arrested, after their death sentence in 2019, in connection with the ninth case registered for a bomb which was defused. “We will move their bail applications in the trial court on Friday seeking their release from jail on the ground of the conspiracy theory having been disproved by the High Court,” he said.