Hyderabad twin blasts verdict on Aug 27 as final arguments conclude
A local court in Hyderabad is set to deliver its judgement on the Hyderabad twin blasts case on August 27, after final arguments for the case were heard by a special bench set up inside the Cherlapally Prison in the city on Tuesday.
The twin bombings occurred 11 years ago, on August 25, 2007 at Gokul Chat in the city's Koti area and Lumbini Park near the Secretariat on Tank Bund. Forty-two people were killed and more than 50 people were injured.
The first blast at the park took place as people, including a number of tourists from Maharashtra, were watching a laser show. The second blast also took a toll, as Koti is a business hub and a haunt of book lovers in the city.
One unexploded bomb was also found near Dilsukhnagar, but was later defused by police forces.
Initially, the police said that terrorists used Neogel-90, an ammonium nitrate base, in the IEDs.
The Telangana police's Counter Intelligence cell which is investigating the case, has declared seven people as accused, out of which charges have been filed against 3 people while 4 accused are absconding.
The hearings were shifted from the Nampally court complex to the Cherlapally jail in June this year, after security inputs.
Three chargesheets have been filed in the case against Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives, identified as Anique Shafiq Syeed, Akbar Ismail Choudhari and Mohammed Sadiq Sheik.
Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Bhatkal, Farooq Sharfuddin and Amir Rasool Khan are presently absconding.
In 2014, IM co-founder Yasin Bhatkal said that he had supplied explosives to Riyaz Bhatkal, days before the blast.
"I supplied IEDs to Riyaz Bhatkal in Udupi, Karnataka, 8-10 days prior to the blasts at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park. I do not know the people who participated in the two blasts in Hyderabad," Yasin Bhatkal said in his statement before a magistrate in Miyapur.
The confession was part of the chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) before a Delhi court.
IANS inputs