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AFP
New Delhi
An Indian court sentenced one person to 10 years' imprisonment but acquitted two others Thursday over bomb blasts that ripped through New Delhi in 2005, killing 62 people and wounding many more. New Delhi's Patiala House Court sentenced Tariq Ahmed Dar to a decade in jail for his involvement in the explosions that tore through two crowded markets and a bus ahead of the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, in October 2005.
But the court said that since Dar had already served 12 years behind bars while awaiting the outcome of his case, he could walk free.
It also let off two of his alleged accomplices, Mohammed Hussain Fazili and Mohammed Rafiq Shah, citing lack of evidence from the prosecution.
"The court acquitted two of the three accused in the case and the third one was convicted for unlawful activities," Sushil Bajaj, the lawyer for Fazili, told reporters after the hearing."Unless there are any other pending cases against them, the court said they should be released from jail forthwith."
All three were reportedly charged with waging war against the state, conspiring, collecting arms, murder and attempt to murder in 2008.
Apart from the 62 dead, 210 people were wounded in the blasts that hit minutes apart, setting off blazes and turning shops at Delhi's Sarojini Nagar and Paharganj markets into heaps of twisted metal and broken glass.
It remains unclear who carried out the bomb blasts, with a little-known group Inquilab (Revolution) claiming responsibility at the time.
But New Delhi suspected Islamic guerrillas from Kashmir behind the blasts -- a claim rejected by Islamabad and pro-Pakistan militant groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba which has been involved in a number of deadly attacks in India.
