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New Delhi, March 30 (). The Rajasthan High Court in 2019 acquitted all the four accused who were sentenced to death for the 2008 Jaipur bomb blasts. The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has welcomed the court’s decision on Thursday. 71 people were killed and 185 others were injured in this bomb blast.
The court, while accepting the plea of one of the accused as a minor, also upheld the acquittal of the fifth accused. The JIH has demanded compensation for those acquitted besides demanding action against the police team who made false allegations in the case.
In a statement issued to the media, JIH vice-president Salim Engineer said, “The Jamaat welcomes the decision of the Rajasthan High Court in the 2008 Jaipur bomb blast case. The judgment by Justice Pankaj Bhandari and Justice Sameer Jain overturned the trial court’s order which had awarded death sentence to the four accused in the case.
However, the statement said the verdict raises some troubling questions. As the accused have been declared innocent, it means that the real perpetrators of the crime are still at large.
Salim Engineer said whether the government will set up a new team to investigate and trace the culprits who planned and executed the blasts? It should do so because the families of those killed in the blasts have not got justice. The issue of justice for the victims of the blasts is very important and should not be ignored. He said that the High Court has identified several lapses in the investigation.
The JIH agrees with the court that the guilty police officers making false allegations should be identified and punished, Engineer said. The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind demands that the five acquitted be compensated as they spent 15 years in jail in false cases against them.
The High Court on Wednesday acquitted the four accused who had filed 28 appeals before the court. In its judgement, the bench reportedly said that the investigating officer lacked legal knowledge. Therefore, instructions have been given to the DGP to take action against the investigating officer as well. The court has also asked the chief secretary to conduct an inquiry by the investigating officer.
Advocate Syed Sadat Ali, representing the accused, said that the High Court has misconstrued the entire theory of the ATS, hence the accused have been acquitted.
FZ/ANM
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