Ahmedabad 2008 serial blasts: SIMI mastermind Safder Nagori and 10 others get life imprisonment

A special court in Indore today convicted Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) mastermind Safdar Nagori and 10 others in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts and were awarded life imprisonment.

All 11 were arrested in a joint operation by the Madhya Pradesh police and central agencies from Dhar in 2008 and were charged under section 124 (A) of the Indian Penal Code.

The accused during investigations led the CBI to a farm in village Aroda in Indore from where 120 gelatine stick and 100 detonators were recovered. Police had also recovered 240 pamphlets of banned literature and a large number of video CDs from the accused. The CDs had a training programme for anti-national forces and according to the police the accused were in the process of recruiting such forces.

The pamphlets too contained anti-India propaganda and talked about launching a holy war against the country.

Out of the 11 accused 10 including Safdar Nagori are lodged in the Sabarmati jail in Gujarat while one was out on bail. The 10 accused lodged in the Gujarat jail were told about their conviction and sentence through video conferencing while one of the accused identified as Munroj who was out on bail arrested immediately after the sentence was announced in Indore.

Nagori was also alleged to be the mastermind of the back to back Gujarat serial blasts of 2008. In July 2008 Ahmadabad serial blasts 57 people had lost their lives and more that 70 people have already been charge sheeted in this case.

The blasts were allegedly triggered by the Indian Mujahedeen (IM) and according to the police terror attack was part of a larger conspiracy jointly hatched by IM and SIMI to avenge the killing of Muslims in the 2002 post Godhra riots.

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