A court in Haryana's Rohtak on Friday acquitted terrorist Abdul Karim Tunda in the 1997 twin Rohtak bomb blast cases, said Tunda's lawyer.
Despite the acquittal, Tunda will remain in jail as he is serving life sentence after being convicted in the 1996 Sonipat Bomb Blast case.
Besides the Rohtak blasts case, Tunda is also an accused in other cases that are at various stages of trial. He has been discharged in multiple cases so far.
What's 1997 Rohtak blasts cases, what's the verdict?
Advocate Vineet Sharma said Rohtak Additional Sessions Judge Raj Kumar Yadav pronounced the verdict acquitting 80-year-old Tunda for a lack of evidence.
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Tunda was produced in the court through video conferencing.
Two bombs went off at the Old Sabzi Mandi and Qila Road on January 22 in 1997 in Haryana's Rohtak, leaving eight injured.
Tunda was charged with Section 307 (attempt to murder), 120-B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Explosives Act, said Verma.
Tunda was nabbed from near the India-Nepal border in August 2013. He was brought to Rohtak on a production warrant on October 26, 2013.
Tunda is a resident of Pilkhua in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh.
Who is Abdul Karim Tunda, what's he accused of?
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Abdul Karim Tunda is a terrorist associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and has been associated with a number of acts of terror in India.
At the time of his arrest in 2013, Tunda was on the run for 19 years and had been lived in a number of countries abroad, according to Rediff News, which also notes that Tunda is an expert bomb-maker.
"During his stay in Pakistan, Tunda told the police he had been in touch with organisations like ISI, LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Indian Mujahiddin and Babbar Khalsa and had been meeting people like Hafiz Saeed, Maulana Masood Azhar, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Dawood Ibrahim and several others wanted by India...According to police sources, Tunda became radicalized and joined Jehadi forces in 1985 after some of his relatives were killed in communal riots in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra," reported Rediff.
Tunda was nabbed from near the India-Nepal border in August 2013.
In 2017, Tunda was convicted in the 1996 Sonipat Bomb Blast case. He was sentenced to life in the case.
In 2016, Tunda and three others, who were accused of helping Pakistani and Bangladeshi terrorists sneak into India in 1997 to carry out terror strikes, were on Saturday discharged in the case by a Delhi court which cited lack of evidence.
In 2020, Tunda was acquitted in case related to conspiring to carry out the serial bomb blasts in several parts of the country including in Hyderabad in 1998.
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(With PTI inputs)
