Life term for 11; govt directed to pay compensation to kin of the dead
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of 38 Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives convicted for the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts, confirming a historic lower court ruling of 2022.
A division bench of Justices AY Kogje and Samir Dave also confirmed life imprisonment for 11 others while rejecting appeals by all the 49 convicts.
The special court’s February 2022 verdict marked the highest number of convicts handed the death penalty in a single ruling in the country’s legal history.
Among those whose sentences were upheld is Safdar Nagori, the former leader of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), who was handed the death penalty.
The High Court also directed the Gujarat government to pay Rs 10 lakh in compensation to the families of the 56 people killed in the terror attacks, and Rs 5 lakh to those grievously injured. Lawyers representing the accused said that they plan to challenge the High Court’s decision in the Supreme Court after reviewing the full judgment.
On July 26, 2008, a series of 21 bomb blasts ripped through different parts of Ahmedabad within 70 minutes, killing 56 people and injuring more than 200.
Explosions also struck hospitals where victims from other blast sites were rushed for treatment, marking the first known instance of hospitals being targeted in such an attack.
Seventy-eight persons were put on trial before the special court, of whom 49 were convicted in February 2022. The trial was conducted after merging 35 police cases, including 20 FIRs registered in Ahmedabad for the 21 blasts and 15 in Surat, where bombs planted by the terrorists failed to explode. Among those convicted were former SIMI leader Nagori and his associates from 11 states, including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.
All the convicts challenged the special court’s verdict before the High Court, while the Gujarat government sought confirmation of the death sentences.
Special public prosecutor Amit Patel said the prosecution had presented all evidence, including material related to the larger conspiracy, before the high court.
“The trial court’s order has been confirmed. The death penalty awarded to 38 convicts has been upheld,” Patel told reporters, adding that he would comment on the finer legal aspects after the detailed judgment is uploaded.
He said the case had been heard extensively for more than one-and-a-half years and was taken up on a day-to-day basis since March 2025, with full-day hearings from January this year before the verdict was delivered.
Patel also said the court directed the state government to pay compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the families of those killed and Rs 5 lakh to the injured before March 30, 2027.
Retired IPS officer Abhay Chudasama, who was then deputy commissioner of police in the Ahmedabad crime branch and supervised the investigation along with then Joint Commissioner of Police Ashish Bhatia, said the verdict validated the investigation carried out by the police.
He said the probe was one of the most challenging investigations undertaken by the Crime Branch and became a matter of prestige for investigators.
