New Delhi: The Supreme Court has sought response from the Centre and four state governments on a plea by suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists, accused of
triggering serial blasts in five state capitals in 2008, for clubbing and shifting of the cases to the national capital.
A Bench of justices VS Sirpurkar and TS Thakur issued notices to governments of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Maharashtra which have altogether lodged 52 FIRs against them
for the serial blasts that had rocked capitals, leaving scores of people dead and injured.
IM suspects, Zia-Ur-Rehman, Mohd. Shakeel, Mohd. Saif, Zeeshan Ahmed, Saqib Nisar, Mohd. Mansoor Asgar Peerbhoy, Mubin Kadar Shaikh, Asif Bashirudding Shaikh and Mohd. Akbar Ismail Chaudhary, have together filed the petition.
Advocate MS Khan, appearing for the accused, pleaded with the court that all the blast cases of 2008 be clubbed and be tried at one place like Delhi saying that it may not be
possible for prosecuting agencies of different states to complete trials during the lifetime of the accused.
The accused were arrested in 2008 from various places for allegedly triggering serial blasts at Hyderabad, Surat, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mumbai and Delhi.
About 150 other accused are also to be tried along with the IM suspects, it said.
"By the petition, petitioners are intending to enforce their right of speedy trial as enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution as there is no possibility that trial in all cases would be concluded in near future," they said.
36 FIRs were lodged against them in Gujarat while eight and seven cases respectively were lodged in Jaipur and Delhi. One FIR was lodged against IM suspects in Mumbai.
If clubbing and shifting of cases was not possible, then a direction be given to the government and others to use the "latest technology like submitting chargesheets on CDs and DVDs and holding video conferencing," to avoid lengthy procedures, the petition said.
PTI
