Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (MS)
Mangaluru, Feb 20: Three among the 38 accused who have been sentenced to death in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blast case are from Karnataka. Two of them are from natives of Mangaluru.
Syed Mohammed Naushad (30), resident of Subhashnagar near Pandeshwar, Ahmed Bawa Abubaker Barelvi (38), resident of Haleangadi and Mohammed Adnan of Vijayapura are the three accused from Karnataka who have been convicted.
The special court has pronounced life sentence to Naushad while Ahmed Bawa and Adnan have been sentenced to death.
File Photo
Representational image
All the three accused had bought the explosives from Udupi and transported it to Surat in Gujarat and manufactured the bomb in a rented house in Surat. Later the trio placed the bombs in various places in Surat and Ahmedabad and left to Pune by train. When they were halfway to Pune they got the information of the blast in Ahmedabad. As the circuit was not proper, the bomb that was kept in Surat did not go off.
Information about the accused was obtained from the car that was discarded by them. This was noted by TV journalists. The owner of the rented house recognized the car and informed the police that it belonged to people who were residing on rent in his house. The trio had left the house after locking it. When the police broke the lock and inspected the house, they found raw materials to manufacture the bombs.
The car was stolen from Mumbai. A certain Ismail Chaudhuri had stolen the car and handed over the same to Riyaz Bhatkal. Police also got information that Riyaz was hiding in Mangaluru. When Maharashtra police arrived in Mangaluru and searched for Riyaz, they came to know that he was hiding in Ullal. Police conducted raids on August 3, 2008 at Mukkacheri of Ullal, Chembugudde near Thokkottu, Subhashnagar of Pandeshwar and other areas. They arrested Mohammed Ali and Javed Ali of Mukkacheri, Naushad of Subhashnagar and Ahmed Bawa of Haleangadi. Later they arrested six more people in operations that were held in Ucchila near Padubidri, Chikkamagaluru, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Police had confiscated five bombs, 11.39 lac rupees in cash, map of Gujarat, 21 mobile phones, sim cards, Jihadi literature, laptop, hard disk and four passports from Mohammed Ali, his son Javed Ali, Naushad and Ahmed Bawa.
On April 12, 2017, JMFC court of Mangaluru had sentenced Syed Mohammed Naushad, Ahmed Bawa Abubaker and another accused of Padubidri to rigorous life imprisonment.
Some people had petitioned to Prime Minister and the President in support of the arrested people saying that they were innocent. They had accused inspector Venkatesh Prasanna, who took part in the operation.