An Indian court Thursday cleared three defendants over a series of bomb blasts in New Delhi in 2005 that killed 62 people, but jailed one of them for his links with a banned group.
New Delhi’s Patiala House Court said there was not enough evidence against Tariq Ahmed Dar, Mohammed Hussain Fazili and Mohammed Rafiq Shah for their involvement in explosions that tore through two crowded markets and a bus ahead of the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, in October 2005.
The court sentenced Dar to a decade in jail for his links with a militant group but since he had already served 12 years behind bars while awaiting the outcome of his case, it said he could walk free.
“It appears that no one was held guilty for the blasts because the prosecution could not prove the charges against them, except for one who was proven guilty for his association with a banned terror group,” Sushil Bajaj, lawyer for Fazili, told AFP after the hearing.
He could not immediately identify the militant group, saying he was yet to read the court’s judgement in detail.
All three were reportedly charged with waging war against the state, conspiring, collecting arms, murder and attempt to murder in 2008.
Apart from the 62 dead, 210 people were wounded in the blasts that hit minutes apart, setting off blazes and turning shops at Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar and Paharganj markets into heaps of twisted metal and broken glass.
It remains unclear who carried out the bomb blasts, with a little-known group Inquilab (Revolution) claiming responsibility at the time.
But New Delhi suspected Islamic guerrillas from Kashmir behind the blasts — a claim rejected by Islamabad and pro-Pakistan militant groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba which has been involved in a number of deadly attacks in India.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan but claimed in its entirety by both.
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