Ghaziabad, June 07: Pronouncing the judgment in the Varanasi Serial bomb blast case, the Ghaziabad court has announced a death sentence and life imprisonment to terrorist and mastermind of the blasts, Waliullah Khan.
It should be noted that District Sessions Judge Jitendra Kumar Sinha convicted Waliullah in two cases which were lodged under IPC sections of murder, attempt to murder, and mutilation and under the Explosives Act.
The verdict came after over 16 years of the blasts, in which at least 20 people were reportedly killed and nearly 100 people injured.
On 7 March 2006, the first blast took place at 6.15 pm inside the Sankat Mochak temple in the Lanka police station. After 15 minutes, a bomb exploded outside the first-class retiring room at Varanasi cantonment railway station. A cooker bomb was also found near the railings of a railway crossing in Dashashwamedh Police Station on the same day.
According to the special task force, Waliullah Khan was linked to a terrorist outfit in Bangladesh Harkat-ul-jehad Al Islami. Police had arrested him from Lucknow in 2006. He faced trial in three cases, which included six cases registered at Lanka and Dashashwamedh police stations and the Government Railway Police precinct in Varanasi.