The Allahabad High Court has set aside the conviction of Mohammad Ilyas in the 1996 Modinagar-Ghaziabad bus bomb blast case on the ground that the prosecution failed to prove charges against the appellant.
A two-judge bench comprising Justice Siddharth and Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra vacated the conviction, observing that the prosecution "miserably failed" in proving the charges.
The bench ruled that the convict's alleged confessional statement recorded by the police was inadmissible under Section 25 of the Evidence Act.
The court, in its November 10 order, said that it was passing the order of acquittal "with a heavy heart" as the "terrorist" attack shocked the conscience of society, killing 18 people.
"The prosecution has miserably failed to prove the charges that the appellant conspired to plant a bomb along with the co-accused to create a bomb explosion in the bus, which resulted in a large number of loss of lives and injuries to the passengers and damage to public property, i.e. this bus. The findings of conviction recorded by the trial court and the sentence awarded to the appellant are accordingly liable to be set aside," the court said.
It said that the trial court committed a "great legal error" in relying upon an audio cassette carrying the recorded confession of the appellant in the presence of police.
"If this evidence is excluded, there is absolutely no evidence against the appellant in support of the charge," it said.
"The witnesses of the extrajudicial confession of the appellant and co-accused regarding their involvement in the offence have turned hostile during the trial and not supported the prosecution's case," the bench added.
The court said that the audio-recorded confessional statement allegedly made by Ilyas before a police officer was inadmissible.
"Therefore, in the present case, the confession recorded by the Senior Police Officer will not be permitted to be proved under law due to an embargo created by Section 25 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872," it said.
Section 25 of the Evidence Act provides that no confession made to a police officer shall be proved as against a person accused of any offence.
On April 27, 1996, a bus departed from Delhi at 3.55 pm with around 53 passengers.
Fourteen more passengers boarded the bus on the way.
At around 5 pm, just after crossing the Modinagar Police Station (Ghaziabad), a powerful explosion occurred in the front portion of the bus, killing 10 people on the spot and injuring 48 passengers.
A forensic examination revealed that RDX mixed with carbon had been placed beneath the seat of the driver and that the blast was triggered through a remote switch.
The prosecution's case alleged that the attack was executed by Abdul Mateen, alias Iqbal, a Pakistani national and alleged district commander of Harkat-ul-Ansar, in conspiracy with Mohammad Ilyas and Tasleem.
Ilyas was alleged to have been indoctrinated in Jammu and Kashmir.
In 2013, the trial court acquitted Tasleem but convicted Ilyas and Abdul Mateen under several sections of the IPC and the Explosive Substances Act.
Both were sentenced to life imprisonment along with various terms of rigorous imprisonment and fines.
No state appeal was filed against Tasleem's acquittal, and there has been no information on whether Abdul Mateen filed an appeal.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
