Santacruz bomber gets lifer

Ashfaq Shaikh, an accused in the serial bomb blasts at railway stations in 1998 was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Sewri court on Wednesday. He had planted a bomb at the Santacruz railway station.

Ashfaq Shaikh, an accused in the serial bomb blasts at railway stations in 1998 was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Sewri court on Wednesday. He had planted a bomb at the Santacruz railway station.

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Ashfaq Shaikh outside the Sewri court after he was convicted for life for his involvement in the bomb blast at Santacruz station in 1998. Pic/Datta Kumbharu00a0

In 1998, series of explosions at Kanjurmarg station (January 23), the Goregaon and Malad railway tracks (January 24) and three consecutive bomb blasts on February 27 near Virar station, Santacruz railway station and on platform number two at Kandivali railway station were carried out at the behest of the ISI.

Twelve people were accused in this case, out of which 11 had been convicted in 2004. Two of the accused were Pakistani citizens.

Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam had then said that the convicts had carried out an unsuccessful premature explosion in a Masjid in which the accused Ashfaq, who was then an approver, later turned hostile, was injured. The court heard his case separately from the others.

In 2004, a special court had convicted Aftab Sayed Ahmed, Asgar Kadar Shaikh, Afzal Abdul Hamid, Iqbal Mohammed Hanif, Jaffar Abdul Shaikh, Kadir Mohammed Shafi, Shaikh Shahid Khalid Ansari, Shabir Bashir Chauhan, Javed Gulam Hussain, Farooq Yusuf Shaikh and Mohammed Yakub Abdul Majeed as guilty of crimes under Sections 302, 307 and 120 (b) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 150 and 151 of the Indian Railway Act.

One of the accused, Akram Asgar Ali, died during the trial.

Due to lack of evidence, the court had acquitted Shamshed Gulam Kadir Hyder (aka Raj), a Pakistani national, and ordered to deport him to Pakistan at the earliest.