2000 church blasts conviction upheld
The High Court of Karnataka has upheld the conviction of 20 persons of the Deendar Anjuman sect who had appealed against their conviction by a special court in 2008. They were convicted for causing the serial bomb blasts across Karnataka including Bengaluru in 2000. The blasts were part of the serial church blasts in Karnataka, Goa and Andhra Pradesh. The four blasts in Karnataka included two in Bengaluru and one each in Hubballi and Kalaburagi.
Deendar Anjuman is headed bySyed Zia-ul-Hassan , the prime accused whose family migrated to Pakistan after 1947. 23 of the 53 who were tried in the case were shifted to Karnataka after their trial in Andhra Pradesh. In 2008, a special court in Bengaluru convicted 23 of them. Eight of the remaining were given death sentence and 14 life sentences. There were four separate cases related to the blasts in Bengaluru, Hubballi and Wadi (in Kalaburagi) that were tried in the special court.
The turning point in the investigation came when the car in which three of the conspirators were carrying a bomb exploded in Bengaluru, killing two of them. The arrested members of Deendar Anjuman were charged withcriminal conspiracy , waging war against India and under the Explosives Substances Act.
The division bench of the HC comprising Justice N Kumar and Justice Rathnakala delivered the judgment upholding the conviction of all. The court held that each accused is party to the conspiracy even if they are not part of each and every act that is undertaken to fulfil their objective. The overt act of one of the conspirators is enough to be held against the other conspirators.
Answering 12 questions including whether the second trial in the case amounted to double jeopardy, whether confession of one of the accused was permissible and the death sentence on some of the accused, the court held all of them against the convicts except for the death sentence, which it said didn’t apply as it was not the rarest of rare cases. The convicts who conspired and carried out the church attacks did not intend to kill anyone with the blasts, but only wanted to create enmity between Hindus and Christians.
BOUND BY CONSPIRACY
The court said that the conspirators were bound by the same ideology to Islamise the world. The idea of Deendar Anjuman was that there would be a war between India and Pakistan and Pakistan would burn for eight days. 70 to 75 per cent of north India would be lost and the prime conspirator Syed Zia-ul-Hassan would come to south India from Pakistan with nine lakh Pathans and conquer it. The main accused and his children are absconding, the court order said.
The court said that the warning letters written in the name of Hindus to Christians and Christians to Hindus found in the homes and workplace of the accused was also evidence against them. They tried to create hatred among various religions by defaming Lingayats, Buddhists, Jains and other religions. E-mail correspondence that sent sensitive military installation data to Pakistan was also held against them. The accused had also visited Mardan in Pakistan to undertake training in weapons.
The court said that the allegations against them was proved beyond reasonable doubt. It also said that the conviction of these persons by a court in Hyderabad in connect cases was proof enough. But the special court in Bengalur had gone beyond and found additional evidence against them.
Deendar Anjuman is headed by
The turning point in the investigation came when the car in which three of the conspirators were carrying a bomb exploded in Bengaluru, killing two of them. The arrested members of Deendar Anjuman were charged with
The division bench of the HC comprising Justice N Kumar and Justice Rathnakala delivered the judgment upholding the conviction of all. The court held that each accused is party to the conspiracy even if they are not part of each and every act that is undertaken to fulfil their objective. The overt act of one of the conspirators is enough to be held against the other conspirators.
Answering 12 questions including whether the second trial in the case amounted to double jeopardy, whether confession of one of the accused was permissible and the death sentence on some of the accused, the court held all of them against the convicts except for the death sentence, which it said didn’t apply as it was not the rarest of rare cases. The convicts who conspired and carried out the church attacks did not intend to kill anyone with the blasts, but only wanted to create enmity between Hindus and Christians.
BOUND BY CONSPIRACY
The court said that the conspirators were bound by the same ideology to Islamise the world. The idea of Deendar Anjuman was that there would be a war between India and Pakistan and Pakistan would burn for eight days. 70 to 75 per cent of north India would be lost and the prime conspirator Syed Zia-ul-Hassan would come to south India from Pakistan with nine lakh Pathans and conquer it. The main accused and his children are absconding, the court order said.
The court said that the warning letters written in the name of Hindus to Christians and Christians to Hindus found in the homes and workplace of the accused was also evidence against them. They tried to create hatred among various religions by defaming Lingayats, Buddhists, Jains and other religions. E-mail correspondence that sent sensitive military installation data to Pakistan was also held against them. The accused had also visited Mardan in Pakistan to undertake training in weapons.
The court said that the allegations against them was proved beyond reasonable doubt. It also said that the conviction of these persons by a court in Hyderabad in connect cases was proof enough. But the special court in Bengalur had gone beyond and found additional evidence against them.
