Click to play videoNew Delhi: It has been a year since five serial blasts rocked the national capital killing 24 people but the trial in the case is yet to begin.
Last year on September 13 five bombs exploded at different areas of New Delhi within a difference of few minutes of each other.
The bombs were kept in some of the busiest city areas like Ghaffar Market, Connaught Place, M-Block market in Greater Kailash-1.
Exactly a week after the serial blasts (September 19, 2008), the Delhi Police gunned down the alleged mastermind of the blast at south Delhi’s Batla House.
Inspector MC Sharma of the Special Cell was also killed in the crossfire.
Police claimed they have cracked the case by killing two alleged terrorists and arresting three others from the Batla House area.
“We have made a breakthrough in the Delhi blast case. There was an encounter that took place in which two have been killed. Arrests have also been made,” said Joint Commissioner of Police, Special Cell Karnail Singh.
The Delhi Police have filed a chargesheet against 30 persons accused in the case. Of them, 12 are under custody, two have been killed in the Batla House gunfight and 16 others are absconding.
The chargesheet names Pakistan-based man Abu al-Qama as the mastermind of the serial blasts, who is also wanted for the 2005 serial blasts in the Capital.
The accused have been charged with murder, attempt to murder and waging war against the state, besides other offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Explosive Substances Act.
But the hearing in the case is yet to begin. For the victims the trauma of that evening is hard to forget.
“My son said he is going to buy crackers. I kept telling him not to go but he didn’t listen,” says a blast victim’s mother, Harpreet Kaur.
The police probe has not been controversy free. Several human rights groups raised questions over the Batla House encounter alleging that the men killed were innocent students.
But months later, the police were relieved when the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) gave them a clean chit.
With inputs from Parikshit Luthra for CNN-IBN
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.