Shramjeevi Express blast verdict: Death penalty for HuJI operative

A HuJI operative was awarded death penalty in the 2005 Shramjeevi Express train blast case by a local court in Jaunpur on Saturday.

Alamgeer alias Rony, a Bangladeshi national, was awarded death sentence and a fine of Rs 7 lakh by Additional District and Sessions Judge Buddhiram Yadav who had held the accused guilty on Friday. The verdict for another accused in the case, Ubed-ur-Rehman alias Babu, would be pronounced on August 2.

Twelve persons were killed and many others injured when an explosion ripped apart a coach of New Delhi-bound Shramjeevi Express from Patna near Jaunpur station in Uttar Pradesh on July 28, 2005. The explosion was later found to have been caused by RDX stored in the toilet of the coach.

According to eyewitnesses, two men had boarded the train at Jaunpur with a white suitcase but shortly afterwards jumped out of the moving train without it and ran away. A few minutes later, the explosion shook the carriage. Along with Rony, Ubed-ur-Rehman, Nafeequl Biswas and Sohag alias Hilal -- all Bangladeshi nationals with links to terror outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) -- were subsequently arrested by the police.

Nafeequl and Hilal are currently lodged in Hyderabad jail in connection with another case, while another accused, Sharif, is on the run. Two more accused, Ghulam Razdani alias Yahya and Sayeed, died during the pendency of the case.