“Who will bring back those years”, lament 6 lifers freed by Rajasthan HC in 23 year old Samleti blast case

The Rajasthan High Court has acquitted six lifers while upholding the death sentence to one and the life term to another in the 23-year-old case of bomb blast in a bus at Samleti in Dauisa district, in which 14 persons were killed.

The six lifers who were freed on Monday by a Jaipur bench of the high court include five Jammu and Kashmir natives Javed Khan, Latif Ahmed, Mohammad Ali Bhatt, Mirja Nissa Hussain and Abdul Ghani.

The sixth accquitted, Rais Beg, is from Agra in Uttar Pradesh.

A trial court at Bandikui in Dausa had awarded death penalty to one person, Dr Abdul Hamid, and life terms to seven others in the 1996 bomb blast case.

The division bench of justices Sabina and Goverdhan Bardhar, however, upheld the death penalty awarded to Abdul Hamid, saying he was the key person behind planting of the bomb in the bus going to Bikaner from Agra on May 22, 1996.

The bench also upheld the life term awarded to Pappu alias Salim, holding him to be responsible for supplying the explosives.

The court acquitted the six lifers ruling that the prosecution has failed to prove their links with the conspiracy of the blast, said defence counsel Shahid Hasan.

After coming out of the jail on Tuesday, 5 men said they didn’t know each other until Criminal Investigation Department made them an accused in the case.

While Beg is a resident of Agra, Ghani is from Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir, and the others are from Srinagar. Before they were jailed, Bhatt had a carpet business, Baja used to sell Kashmiri handicraft in Delhi and Kathmandu, Nisar was a Class IX student and Ghani used to run a school, reported The Indian Express

“We have no idea about the world we are stepping into,” says Ghani. “We’ve lost relatives while we were inside. My mother, father and two uncles passed away. We have been acquitted, but who will bring back those years,” says Beg, adding that his sister has since got married and his niece is now about to get married too.

According to a report in Indian Express, when his relatives hugged him, he started crying. One was Beg’s son, Rizwan, and the other is his brother, Saleem. “We never lost hope all these years,” says Saleem, trying to hold back his tears. “Last night, we couldn’t sleep or eat. The anticipation, and then the paper work, seemed to go on forever,” says Nisar. He stated that he was just 16 years old when he was made an accused, but the officials showed his age as 19 then. Now 39, he says he would like to get married and try to make a fresh start.

All eight were convicted by the Bandikui sessions court for various offences under Indian Penal Code, the Explosive Act and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP).

The high court bench also upheld the acquittal of the ninth person, Farukh Ahmed Khan, by the Bandikui court in the case earlier in 2014.

The state government had challenged Khan’s acquittal, but the high court bench dismissed the appeal against him.

The blast had taken place in a state roadways bus, going to Bikaner from Agra on May 22, 1996. Fourteen persons were killed and 37 injured in the blast.

Dr Hamid whose death penalty was upheld in the Samleti bomb blast case is also a key accused in the case related to planting of bombs in the SMS Stadium of Jaipur on January 26, 1996.

With PTI inputs.