Begumpet suicide blast case: Delay main reason for acquittal, says ex-cop

HYDERABAD: If all the accused in the task force suicide bombing case are innocent then the question is who actually aided the suicide bomber? 

The acquittal of the accused in the suicide bomb case has exposed the failure of the prosecution and the investigation agencies in zeroing in on the culprits even after dragging the case for 12 years. Senior retired police official Mr B. Reddenna said, “Delay is the main reason for the acquittal. As the investigation officials changed over the years, the witnesses also failed to depose properly. A quick trial is the only remedy for this.” 

The prosecution heavily depended on circumstantial witnesses. The suicide bomber, Dalin, came all the way from Chittagong to Hyderabad via the porous Indo-Bangladesh border. Interestingly, Zahed, brother of Shahed Bilal, Harkat-ul-Jihad Al Islami South India chief, was also acquitted. Shahed Bilal and his brother, Samad, are reported to have been killed in an encounter in Karachi in Pakistan in 2007. All those persons, who were charged with sheltering the suicide bomber, are acquitted, giving a server blow to the police and prosecutors. 

A senior city police official said, “Two separate chargesheets were filed in 2006 and 2010 by splitting the case. The case was initially investigated threadbare when Mr A.K. Mohanty was the commissioner of police. The prime accused was arrested within six months. During those days there were no CCTV cameras. In the absence of eyewitnesses, we had to depend heavily on circumstantial evidence and witnesses. Two Bangladeshis, involved in the case, were also accused in other terror cases, including train blasts, in Uttar Pradesh.”

The trial started in 2007 in one of the chargesheets. In 2010, the High Court granted an injunction, which was revoked in a year when the case was shifted from the metropolitan sessions court to the special court for communal disturbances. 

In 2012, the trial was stalled for two years as the investigating officer, M. Diwakar, was out of the country. The bombing was carried out by the Bangladeshi national to avenge the killing of Mujahid Salim by the Gujarat police in 2004. The suicide bomber was wearing slippers made in Bangladesh which was the first clue in the case.