(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The accused languishing in dark cells of the high-security central jail in Ahmedabad will now be able to step out of their barracks to get some sunlight and walk in the lobbies for a while.
Five days after 22 accused in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case went on hunger strike and threatened to commit suicide the Gujarat government has accepted their demand to allow them a little more freedom.
The accused languishing in ‘dark’ cells of the high-security central jail in Ahmedabad will now be able to step out of their barracks to get some sunlight and walk in the lobbies for a while but under strict supervision of jailors and guards.
The Anandi Patel government has however rejected their demand to join distance education courses or study books from the jail library to earn other degrees saying they had misused their knowledge to dig up an escape tunnel in 2012.
The 22 accused some of whom are scholars or have obtained degrees while in jail are among the 74 lodged in jail in the sensational serial blasts case in which 21 bomb explosions had rocked Ahmedabad on July 26 2008 killing 56 men women and children.
Before going on hunger strike last week the accused including 14 also involved in digging a 218-feet tunnel had in an affidavit filed in a court alleged that they were not only confined in dark cells under CCTV surveillance but were also beaten black and blue by jailors.
Following a complaint by an accused last week about sluggish court proceedings the Gujarat high court had asked the newly-appointed principal judge of the city sessions court to place a report on how the trial has progressed during the last six months.
The court has sought the status report after Salim Sipai said in his complaint that principal sessions judges were designated as special judges to conduct the trial but their busy schedule did not permit them to give time to the case.
According to defence lawyer Khalid Shaikh the Supreme Court had directed the trial court on April 28 to conduct proceedings on day-to-day basis and given six months’ time to complete the case.
The prosecution has so far examined 334 witnesses in the case but in the last six months only 15 witnesses could be examined. There are more than 2600 witnesses cited in the voluminouschargesheets filed by the city crime branch.
Looking at the sensitivity and security aspects involved in the case the state — by invoking special section 268 — prohibited the accused from being taken outside the jail. Hence the trial is being conducted inside the high-security central jail in Ahmedabad.
The overcrowded jail has been further fortified for the court proceedings against the 74 people lodged in the prison since their arrest six years ago.
The arrests have been made in this case from 11 states. Most of those arrested also face trial in different cases in respective courts outside the state.
Currently many of such accused are being tried through video-conferencing in courts in Karnataka Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh though they are lodged in Ahmedabad. According to the prosecution the accused had entered into a conspiracy to take revenge for the post-Godhra riots in which several people belonging to the minority community were killed.
It is also alleged that the accused had allegedly taken training in camps organised in the forest area of Halol-Pavagadh in Gujarat and various other places of the state.
The prosecution has also stated that the accused had also organised meetings in the state to arrange for vehicles and other logistics for an attack on various Hindu sites.
The police attributed the entire blasts conspiracy in Ahmedabad and Surat to the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen — reportedly an offshoot of the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India — and the Harkat-Ul-Jehadi-Islami.
maheshkhaleejtimes.com
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