Hyderabad: The two men found guilty of setting off the two blasts that killed 44 persons at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park here in 2007 were sentenced to death on Monday. Another convict was given life imprisonment. The sentences were read out by second additional metropolitan sessions court in-charge judge T. Srinivas Rao at the Cherlapally Central Prison. The court sentenced Mohammed Akbar Ismail Choudhary and Aneeq Shafique Sayeed to death. They were convicted on September 4, 11 years after the blasts took place.
Tariq Anjum, who was accused of harbouring the convicts in Delhi and other places before and after the blasts, was also convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Special public prosecutor K. Surender told this newspaper, “The court found that Aneeq and Ismail were guilty of the charges framed by the prosecution of conspiring to form a group and planting bombs. Tariq has been found guilty of harbouring the accused before and after the blasts. The first two were given death punishment and a penalty of Rs 10,000 for each offence and Tariq was given life imprisonment.”
Aneeq Shafique Sayeed.
The two blasts that occurred in a span of five minutes at the eatery and the amusement park on the evening of August 27, 2007, killed 44 people and left 68 injured. According to the prosecution, the bomb planted by Aneeq at Lumbini Park exploded at 7.40 pm and the bomb planted by Ismail at Gokul Chat exploded five minutes later. Another bomb planted under the foot-overbridge at Saroornagar did not explode. Aneeq and Ismail were sentenced to life imprisonment in the case of the unexploded bomb recovered at Dilsukhnagar under the foot-overbridge.
