Hyderabad twin blasts verdict on September 4

​Hyderabad: The Metropolitan Session Judges (MSJ) court, Nampally, will deliver its verdict on the Lumbini Park and Gokul chat twin bomb blasts case on Tuesday. The twin bomb blasts in 2007 claimed 44 lives and left 68 injured. On August 27, Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge T Srinivas Rao adjourned the judgement in the case to September 4.

The Counter Intelligence (CI) wing of the Telangana Police had investigated the case and arrested five accused who were all allegedly Indian Mujahideen operatives. The agency had filed four charge sheets against the five accused and also named two others, Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal, who have been absconding ever since.

On August 27, the court opined that as the judgement order was not yet ready it would be delivered on September 4. The court heard the case of five suspects Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chowdhari, Aneeq Shafique Sayeed, Farooq Sharfuddin Tarkash, Mohammed Sadiq Israr Ahmed Shaik and Tarik Anjum who were produced before the court on August 27 through a video conference from Cherlapally Central Prison. 

Earlier, the trial against five accused in the case was shifted to a court hall located on the premises of Cherlappally Central Prison from a court located in Nampally Court Complex in June this year. The accused were charged under section 302 (murder) and other relevant provisions of the IPC and sections of Explosive Substances Act in connection with the twin blasts on August 25, 2007 and also with regard to the recovery of an unexploded bomb found under a foot over bridge at Dilsukhnagar.     

According to the prosecution, Aneeq Shafique Sayeed allegedly planted the bomb at Lumbini Park while Riyaz Bhatkal planted the bomb at Gokul Chat. While the unexploded bomb was planted by Ismail Chowdhari. Tarik Anjum is accused of giving shelter to the other accused after the blasts.

The blast at the popular eatery Gokul Chat killed 32 people and left 47 injured. While the blast at the open-air theatre in Lumbini Park killed 12 people and left 21 injured. After the twin blasts, the investigation was conducted by four different agencies namely the Special Investigation Team (SIT), then OCTOPUS, then by the Counter Intelligence (CI) and later by the National Investigating Agency (NIA). The organisations filed separate charge sheets, around 1, 225 pages charge sheet was filed by the Agencies.