JAUNPUR (UP): A sessions court on Wednesday sentenced to death two men, including one from Bangladesh, for carrying out the Shramjivi Express train blast in 2005 that left at least 14 people dead and 62 injured.
Two other convicts were given the death penalty in the case in 2016 and their appeals are pending in the high court, while two of the accused were killed in an encounter and one has been absconding.
“The court of additional sessions court judge Rajesh Kumar Rai awarded death sentences to Hilal alias Hilaluddin and Nafikul Vishwas convicted in the Shramjivi train blast case,” District Government Counsel Satish Pandey said on Wednesday.
A fine of Rs 5 lakh each was also imposed on the two who were pronounced guilty on December 23.
While Hilaluddin is a native of Bangladesh, Vishwas is from West Bengal.
The hearing in the case started in 2016 after the two were brought to Jaunpur Jail from Cherrapalli Jail in Andhra Pradesh.
The local administration had made tight security arrangements on the court premises on Wednesday.
The explosion had ripped apart a coach of the Patna-New Delhi train near the Jaunpur station in Uttar Pradesh at around 5.00 pm on July 28, 2005.
According to the prosecution, RDX was kept in the toilet of the coach. The explosive has been used in many terrorist attacks in the country, including the Ayodhya train bombing of June 2000.
Witnesses had reported that two young men had boarded the train at Jaunpur with a white suitcase. Shortly afterwards, both leapt out of the moving train without their suitcase and the explosion occurred a few minutes later.
The district government counsel said that the Government Railway Police (GRP) had registered a case against seven people in this bomb blast case.
These included Alamgir alias Rony, Obaidur Rahman, Hilaluddin alias Hilal, Nafikul Vishwas, Ghulam Pachdani Yahiya, Kanchan alias Sharif and Doctor Saeed.
Police have not been able to trace Saeed. A charge sheet was filed against the remaining six accused in court.
Pandey said that Ghulam Pachdani and Kanchan were killed in a police encounter. The remaining four accused were arrested.
In 2016, Alamgir and Obaidur Rahman were sentenced to death. Both of them have appealed against the decision in the high court. (PTI)