On Friday, a special court today awarded death penalties to as many as 38 of the 49 convicts in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts. The court awarded the remaining convicts life sentences.
Following the much-awaited verdict, IPS officer Abhay Chudasama, who was the DCP(Crime) during the Ahmedabad blasts, lauded the judgement saying that he was happy that justice was finally delivered after all the painstaking effort. Abhay Chudasama was part of the special team of Ahmedabad Crime Branch led by senior IPS officer Ashish Bhatia that uncovered the terror plot.
Speaking to News18, Abhay Chudasama, one of the chief investigations of the Ahmedabad bomb blast case, said, “It’s a big day for me. This is a landmark judgement. My team and I are very happy with the decision. This case was a big challenge for us. We are happy that justice is delivered”.
2008 DCP Crime, Ahmedabad Abhay Chudasma speaks with @ShivaniGupta_5 on the 2008 Ahmedabad Serial Blasts Case.
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The 1999-batch IPS officer said the serial blasts that occurred On July 26, 2008, resulted in at least 60 deaths. The initial investigations revealed certain significant information regarding the terrorists and their movements near Bharuch district.
“We reached a house in Bharuch, from where we recovered chemicals and explosives. We recovered a telephone number and fake SIM cards. One of the numbers recovered from the terrorists were also linked to the Indian Mujahideen terrorists, who were neutralised in the Batla House encounter on September 19 2008,” Chudasama said.
The police officer also revealed that the terrorists had conspired to kill high-level targets such as the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in addition to targeting civilians. He said that terrorists had triggered the bombs in the evening in about 18 locations and two more inside the LG and Civil hospitals as they expected high-level targets to visit the spot on the day of terror attacks.
The police officer also recounted that the blasts at the hospitals were so intense that the body parts of the victims were found almost 200 metres away from their bodies. Abhay Chudasama also said that the Ahmedabad blasts were part of a broad pan-India conspiracy as the Indian Mujahideen terrorists were involved in terror attacks in Jaipur and Delhi.
Ahmedabad blasts
As many as 22 bombs went off in Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, at various places, buses, cars, including the state government-run civil hospital, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation-run LG Hospital, killing 56 persons and leaving 200 injured. Of the total 24 bombs, two bombs placed at Kalol and Naroda did not go off.
Within three weeks of the attack, major arrests, in this case, had taken place owing to the coordinated efforts of the Gujarat police and the ATS. A big network of the Indian Mujahidin terrorists was exposed. These terrorists were also involved in the bomb blasts in other cities of the country.
The Gujarat police had claimed that these attacks were executed as an attempt to take revenge for the 2002 post-Godhra riots. Indian Mujahidin was a section of the banned organisation Students Islamic Movement of India that is SIMI. The terrorists have threat emails about these blasts to various news channels and media houses. Also, a few days after the blasts, a large number of live bombs were found and defused in Surat city of Gujarat.
Almost thirteen years later, the special court in Ahmedabad convicted 49 people for their role in the Ahmedabad serial blasts case.
