Mumbai: In a huge setback to ATS, the Bombay high court on Thursday acquitted Himayat Baig, the lone convict in Pune’s German Bakery bomb blast case, of all the terror charges and also quashed and set aside his death sentence.
The court also acquitted him from charges which connected him with the blast case but held him guilty for possessing explosives and awarded him life sentence under Explosive Substances Act.
The division bench of Justice N.H. Patil and Justice S.B. Shukre acquitted Baig from 14 of the 16 charges. The court acquitted him from sections 16 (1) (A), 18, 20 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) imposed for criminal conspiracy for blast, murder and attempt to murder for which the trial court had awarded him death and life sentence.
The high court however, upheld his conviction as well as life sentence under section 5 (B) of UAPA because more than 1 kilogram of RDX was recovered from his house in district Beed. The bench also confirmed his conviction under section 474 of the IPC because certain forged documents including someone else’s ATM card, Caste Certificate and Domicile certificates were also recovered from his possession.
At the end of pronouncement of judgment the judges also said that they do not need to pass any order on the applications filed by former journalist Ashish Khetan along with two witnesses who wanted to intervene in the matter in favour of Baig. Khetan had filed Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against Baig’s conviction claiming that the ATS deliberately created bogus evidence, extracted false confessions by the most inhuman torture, planted explosives in the houses of the accused and thus implicated an innocent Muslim youth.
The witnesses in their application had requested the court to record their evidence again because their statements were taken under duress. The judges had said that they would decide these applications while deciding the appeal.
On Thursday the judges said since Baig is acquitted in most of the charges there is no need to pass any order on these applications and dismissed them.
Dressed in a black shirt and blue jeans, Baig was produced before the court amidst tight security. During pronouncement of judgment Baig did not react much and seemed relaxed while returning from court.
Speaking to The Asian Age, Baig’s lawyer Mehmood Pracha said, “We are happy that the court has acquitted an innocent person from charges of terrorism. Though he (Baig) is convicted for possessing RDX we are hopeful that he would be acquitted from these charges also from Supreme Court.” He also said that the prosecution’s case is that the RDX, which was recovered from Baig’s house was the remaining part from the Bakery’s blast. “When main charge of blast is not proved against him than how he could possess the remaining RDX from the blast?” said Pracha.
Hafiz Nadeem, the president of Jamiat-e-Ulema Maharashtra said, “We would speak to our lawyers after getting judgment copy of this case and then decide on approaching Supreme Court against Baig’s conviction in two charges.”
