Lucknow special court convicts two in 2007 court blast case; quantum of sentence to be announced on 27 August

Lucknow: A special court in Lucknow on Thursday convicted two accused in connection with 2007 court blast case in the state capital. The special judge Babita Rani fixed 27 August for awarding quantum of sentence to the accused - Tariq Kajmi and Mohd Akhtar. The trial was conducted in the District Jail, Lucknow. The third  accused in the case – Khalid Mohammad – had died during  course of the trial. While, the fourth accused – Sajjadur Rehman was earlier given clean chit. [caption id=“attachment_269350” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] According to government lawyer MK Singh, the accused had been charge-sheeted for sedition, criminal conspiracy and attempted murder under the Indian Penal Code. The accused had also been booked under Explosive Substances Act and Prevention of Unlawful Activities Act. The prosecution produced 44 witnesses in support of its case while the defense examined its three witnesses. A series of blasts took place in courts at Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi on 23 November 2007. Several people died in Varanasi and Faizabad but there was no casualty in Lucknow. For Lucknow blasts, the FIR was registered in the Wazirganj police station on same day. During course of probe, on 22 December 2007, the STF arrested Tariq Kajmi of Rani ki Sarai village in Sarai Meer police station area of Azamgarh. Mohammad Akhtar of Kashmir were arrested on 27 December. The STF had then stated that the four were operatives of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI). They also accused Mohammad Tariq in a case of a blast in Gorakhpur in May 2007. Later, the Lucknow court blast case was transferred to the anti-terror squad (ATS), which submitted the charge-sheet against the accused in April, 2008.