38 to die over 2008 India serial blasts

A special anti-terrorism court in the western Indian state of Gujarat on Friday sentenced to death as many as 38 people in a 13-year-old serial bomb blasts case.

This is by far the highest number of death sentences given by any Indian court in one go.

The same court had earlier convicted 49 people for the terror attack -- a series of 31 blasts in a span of an hour -- that claimed 56 lives and injured more than 200 others in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat in 2008.

Eleven of the remaining convicts have been sentenced to life imprisonment by special court judge AR Patel. None of the life-term convicts would be entitled to parole after 14 years, the court made it clear.

In fact, a total of 80 accused were put on trial in the case. On February 8, the court, however, acquitted 28 others in the case for lack of evidence.

During the trial, the prosecution held the home-grown terror outfit Indian Mujahideen responsible for the blasts. 

The terrorists had carried out the serial blasts as an act of revenge for the 2002 riots in Gujarat that claimed the lives of over 1,000 people, mostly minority Muslims, according to police.