Begumpet suicide blast case: Defence counsel hails verdict

HYDERABAD: Defence counsel M.A Azeem said that he was satisfied with the verdict, and noted that the police have falsely implicated innocent persons in the case after they failed to trace the real culprits. 

He said that after going through the judgment, they will decide the future course of action. Since the alleged accused persons were in jail for more than a decade, the first priority will be to integrate them with their families and to help them come out of the trauma. 

Azeem said that the court has delivered a historical judgment in one of the oldest cases in the Nampally court. The alleged accused persons had to suffer a lot and were taken to various central prisons in the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh. 

“The prosecution argued that they collected evidence from the arrested persons and even claimed that the accused have admitted their role in the blast case. They could only produce circumstantial evidence before the court. We countered all the allegations.” he said. 

He further added that the investigating teams tailor-made a story and falsely implicated innocent persons. 

“Since they were away from their families for 12 years, they may be mentally disturbed. Our first priority is to see that they become normal and then we will decide the next step,” Azeem added. 

3 accused not to be released now
While seven of the ten acquitted persons will walk free with the Thursday’s verdict, two other alleged accused— Nafiqul Biswas and Hilaluddin—will be taken into custody by the UP Police for their alleged role in a similar case in Uttar Pradesh. 

After they will be released from the Chanchalguda prison, the UP Police will take them into custody and they will be produced before a court in UP for further investigation. 

Another alleged accused,  Mohammed Abdul Zahed, will be lodged in the prison for abusing police officers during the trial in the court premises. When Zahed was produced in the court in 2006, he tried to interact with his family members who were present in the court premises. However, the police objected to it, saying that he needed the permission of the court to interact with his family members. Angered over this, he abused the police officers and tried to assault them.  

Based on a complaint from the police, a case was registered against him in the Nampally police station. The trial of the case is slated for August 11.