Ahmedabad blasts revenge for 2002 riots: Cops

The Ahmedabad Crime Branch on Wednesday filed a 2000-page chargesheet in connection with the July 26 serial blasts in the city court, which said that the terror attacks were primarily carried out to avenge the 2002 communal riots and to spread Islam religion in the country.

'Terrorism and riots are not interlinked'

The chargesheet, which names 26 people allegedly related to SIMI as accused in the terror attacks, was filed in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate G M Patel, designated for hearing the serial blasts related cases.

Chargesheet which has been filed for the blasts at the city civil hospital in Shahibaug area and L G Hospital in the Maninagar area lists 50 people as absconding.

According to one of the officer involved in the investigation, the chargesheet describes how the basic conspiracy was planned by the accused, along with roles of all the individuals.

The motive of the carrying out terror attack in Ahmedabad was to avenge the 2002 Gujarat riots and spread Islam religion in the country, the official said.

He said that after the ban of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in 2001, some of its members got together and formed the Indian Mujahideen.

The planning of the conspiracy began with the meeting of the SIMI members in the Waghamon forests of Kerala in December 2007, where modules from Delhi, Mumbai and Gujarat had gathered, the officer added.

The follow up meeting was held in January 2008 in Halol near Vadodara where the SIMI members had hatched the conspiracy of terror attack in various parts of the country, he added.

One of the investigating officers said that chargesheet says Mufti Abu Basher, alleged mastermind behind the terror attacks, along with SIMI leader Safdar Nagori, Sibli Abdul Karim, Kamruddin Nagori, Sajid Mansuri, Qayamuddin Kapadia and Abdus Subha alias Tauqeer were the key players behind the July 26 terror attacks.

He said that Qayamuddin, and Tauqeer had come to Gujarat prior to the blasts and their local aides in Ahmedabad were Alamzeb Afridi and Mujib Sheikh.

Qayamuddin was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh police couple of days ago from Ujjain, while Tauqeer, Alamzeb and Mujib are still absconding.

The officer further said that the a group of accused had visited Ahmedabad on 11th and 12th of July, and later they came back to plant the bombs on July 25.

After planting the bombs in different parts of the city all the accused left the city in the Rajdhani Express on July 26.

According to another police officer, 511 witnesses have been examined during the investigation, whose statement have been included in the chargesheet as annexures.

The accused named in the chargesheet include Jahid Sheikh, Imran Sheikh, Iqbal Sheikh, Samsuddin Sheikh, Gyasuddin Sheikh, Arif Kagzi, Usman Agarbattiwala, Yunus Mansuri, Sajid Mansuri, Abu Basher, Naved Kadri, Javed Sheikh, Abbas Sameja, Aiyaz Sayyad, Salim Sipahi, Umar Kabira, Safdar Nagori, Hafez Hussain, Sibli Abdul Karim, Kamruddin Nagori, Amil Parvez, Mohammad Ali, Raziuddin Nasir, Atik-ur-Rehman, Mehndi Hassan and Imran Ahmed alias Raja.

The chargesheet also contains list of 50 absconders, which include the names of Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Bhatkal, Danish, Mehboob, the Crime Branch official said.

All the 26 accused have been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Explosive Substance Act, Damage to Public Property Act, Information Technology Act, he added.

They have also been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, which include 120 (1a) (Waging war against the state), 153(a) (creating rift between two communities), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) Serial bomb blasts rocked the city on July 26, killing 55 persons and injuring several others.

Two of the bombs had exploded at two big hospital in the city.

Over two dozen bombs were defused from different parts of Surat city after the terror attacks in Ahmedabad. When asked if this was a preliminary chargesheet in the case as some of the accused brought from Delhi and Mumbai are still being interrogated by the police, Assistant Commissioner of Police V R Toliya said that this chargesheet will form the base for the supplementary chargesheets, which will be filed as the investigations progresses.

"This will form the base for all the additional chargesheets that will be filed later on as it has all the details of how the conspiracy was hatched in the terror camps in Gujarat and Kerala, who all attended the camps, and how the individual roles were chalked out to carry out the attacks," Toliya said.

He added that present charges that have been framed are limited to the serial blasts in Ahmedabad.