Thirty-eight months after a powerful blast ripped apart Pune’s German Bakery killing 17 persons and injuring 60 others, a trial court on Monday convicted Mirza Himayat Baig, the lone arrested accused in the case, for murder, criminal conspiracy and other charges.
Delivering the verdict in presence of 30-year-old Baig, who had been brought to the court amidst tight security, Pune’s Additional Sessions Judge NP Dhote ruled: “Taking into consideration the evidence before me I am holding Baig guilty”.
On April 18, the judge will pronounce the quantum of sentence on Baig for offences which are punishable with death.
In his Monday’s ruling, the judge held Baig guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 435 (mischief by fire or explosive substances), 474 (forgery), 153(A) (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, language and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony and 120 (B) (Criminal Conspiracy) of IPC. He also convicted Baig under various sections of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and Explosive Substances Act.
A native of Beed district in Maharashtra, Baig is the only accused who has been arrested and convicted in German Bakery blast case, in which the investigators have filed a chargesheet against seven persons. The six others absconding accused. They are: Mohammed Ahmed Zarar Siddibappa alias Yasin Bhatkal, Mohsin Chaudhary, Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Bhatkal, Fayaz Kagzi and Zabiuddin Ansari.
All the accused have links to Pakistan-based lashkar-e-Tayyeba and home-grown terror outfit Indian Mujahideen.
Among other things, the judge accepted the prosecution’s contention that the German Bakery blast was a “carefully planned and executed attack calculated to terrorise the public in general by causing extensive damage to life and property and that the primary objective was to undermine and reduce faith of the common citizen in the elected Government and destabilise the system of law”.
The court also upheld the prosecution’s charge that “the terror attack was specially designed to cause damage to the lives of foreign nationals visiting the country and its reputation in the matter of security”.
Among the 17 people killed in the blast that rocked the Koregaon Park based popular eatery on the night of February 13, 2010, four
were foreign nationals — two Sudanese, an Italian and
an Iranian.
In the trial, the prosecution examined as many as 103 witnesses. On his part, Baig’s defence lawyer rejected the prosecution’s charges, maintaining that his client had been falsely implicated in the case and that the accused
was in Aurangabad on the day of attack.
Baig, who ran a cyber cafe at Udgir in Beed district, was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) on September 7, 2010. He was later charged with hatching a criminal conspiracy with the six others to launch the terror attack on Pune’s Germany Bakery, frequented by foreigners and young collegians.
The prosecution’s contention is that the conspiracy to trigger an explosion at the German Bakery was hatched in March 2008 in Colombo where Baig where he underwent a “bomb-making and communication skills training” for 15 days at a leT facility there. During the same visit to
the Sri lankan capital, Baig confabulated with Zabiuddi Ansari and Fayyaz Kazgi, and hatched the German bakery blast conspiracy.
Baig was given money for funding the purchase of explosive devices and for sending indoctrinated Muslim youths for terrorist training in Pakistan.
Baig acquired a new identity on his return from Colombo and set up a cyber café at Udgir in latur district using Rs 2.5 lakh that he received from his leT bosses. Since then, he was in constant communication with the wanted accused using 25 different email-IDs.
Having carried out reconnaissance of the targeted German bakery site on January 31, 2010, Baig along with other accused assembled explosive device using “two to three kig” of RDX at his Global Internet Café at Udgir, Baig and Yasin Bhatkal, who is absconding now, carried the assembled explosive device to Pune a day before the blast. On the evening of February 13, 2010, they planted the explosive with a timer devise under one of the tables at the eatery.
Meanwhile, Baig’s counsel Abdul Rahman has said he would challenge his client’s conviction in the Bombay High Court.
“I am going to appeal in the High Court. I am sure I will get justice from the High Court,” Rahman told mediapersons outside the court
Rahman said that the key conspirators in the case had not been arrested and Abu Jundal, named in the chargesheet, was not even brought to the court.
“Police has shown Jundal as one of the conspirators in this case but he was not brought to the court...It is unfortunate,” he said, adding,” more than one person is required for a conspiracy.”
“It is the allegation of the police that conspiracy took place in Sri lanka between Fayyaz Kagzi and Mohsin Chaudhari. It is unfortunate that none of the police officers or Investigating Officer visited that country to find out at which place the conspiracy had taken place. That part remains to be proved by the police,” Rahman added.