A local court in Ghaziabad on Monday awarded a life imprisonment to two terrorists in 1996 Modinagar bus blast case. Third accused was acquitted due to lack evidence.
The two terrorists had planted the bomb in a UP Roadways bus on April 27, 1996. The bomb went off on National Highway-58 at 3.56 pm leaving 16 people dead and 18 passengers critically injured.
The court of Additional District & Sessions Judge Mangal Prasad Yadav while pronouncing the quantum of punishment on Monday awarded life sentence to Mohammad Mateen and Iliyas. However, the court acquitted third accused Tehseen in absence of convincing evidence. The court also imposed a penalty of `50,000 each on convicted terrorists.
Additional District Government Counsel (ADGC) Rajendra Kasana claimed that after the incident, a criminal case was registered with Modi Nagar police under Sections 302, 307, 120B, 147, 148 of IPC and Explosion Act but the case was, later, transferred to the CB CID of the UP Police, which submitted the charge sheet against three accused.
The charge sheet states that the main accused Mohammad Mateen, a resident of Sindh province in Pakistan, was arrested from Jammu & Kashmir in 1997. It, further, states that Mateen reached India from Pakitan and Mohammad Iliyas a resident of Muzaffar Nagar gave him shelter at his residence in the town, said the counsel.
During their stay in Muzaffar Nagar they hatched a conspiracy. The third accused Tasleem joined them in the conspiracy. Then they planted a bomb in a UP Roadways bus plying on the National Highway-58 to Dehradun on April 27, 1996 at Anand Vihar bus terminal which exploded near Modi Nagar while the bus was heading towards Meerut.
The bomb exploded at 3.56 pm on April 27, 1996 in which 16 people were killed. Ten people were killed on the spot while six others were died during treatment in different hospitals in Ghaziabad city. Eighteen people sustained critical injuries in the explosion added the counsel.
During pronouncing the judgement when Iliyas came to know that he had been awarded a life sentence started shouting that he had lost a faith in the judicial system of the country. Till now he was thinking that he would get justice but he had lost the faith in judiciary. However, Mateen was calm and quite.
Some relatives of the victims expressed dissatisfaction to the judgement. They wanted the death sentence for all the three accused who had killed 16 innocent people and left some crippled for life.