A Terrorist and Anti-Disruptive Activities Act court in Rajasthan’s Ajmer on Thursday acquitted Abdul Karim Tunda in the 1993 serial train blasts case citing lack of evidence, The Times of India reported.
Tunda, who is now 81 years old, was the prime accused and alleged mastermind in the case. Two other accused, Irfan and Hamiduddin, were sentenced to life imprisonment.
They were accused in the serial bomb blasts that took place in trains at Hyderabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Mumbai and Surat on the night of December 5 and December 6, 1993 – the first anniversary of the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya. Two persons were killed and several others were injured in the blasts.
The matter was probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The central agency had accused Tunda of being the mastermind behind the serial blasts on four trains.
Tunda’s lawyer Shafqat Sultani said that he had been acquitted in all sections and Acts. “CBI prosecution could not produce any concrete piece of evidence before the court in TADA, IPC [Indian Penal Code], Railway Act, Arms Act, or Explosive Substances Act,” Sultani told media persons.
Tunda was arrested close to India’s border with Nepal in 2013, according to NDTV.
In 2017, a local court in Haryana sentenced Tunda to life imprisonment in the 1996 Sonipat bomb blasts case.
A year earlier, a sessions court in Delhi had discharged Tunda and three others who were accused of helping terrorists from Pakistan and Bangladesh infiltrate India in 1997 to carry out terror attacks. The court had also cited a lack of evidence.
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