Charges framed after a decade in Sabarmati Jail tunnel case
The accused in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blast case dug an 18-foot-long tunnel to escape
Updated: Oct 25th, 2023
In 2013, Ahmedabad woke up with the news of a jail escape that was reminiscent of a plot straight out of the iconic Hollywood movie ‘Shawshank Redemption’.
However, the charges of what happened at Sabarmati Jail on Feb 10, 2013 when 14 of the Ahmedabad serial blasts case undertrials tried to escape, the additional sessions judge Sureshkumar M Thakkar framed charges on Oct 23, after almost a decade.
The accused in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blast case had dug up a 6-foot-deep tunnel under barrack no 4 and an 18-foot-long tunnel near a toilet.
Special public prosecutor, HM Dhruv, stated that in planning a conspiracy to escape the bars, the accused had committed a serious offence under IPC Sections 130, 120, and the Prisoners Act and a framing of charges should be done.
A recap
In the tunnel escape case, the Bhadra sessions court on Apr 4, 2016, discharged all 24 accused. However, after the government appealed to the high court against it, the HC clearly stated that it was a clear offence against the accused to try to escape from jail. The case was later sent back to the sessions court.
The prisoners might have taken ten days to dig the tunnel, while the administration took ten years to charge frame the accused. Even after the tenure of four chief ministers, the state government failed to pay heed to a long-drawn case.
Who were the accused who tried to escape?
The court mentioned that some of the accused arrested in the tunnel case were engineers and MBAs. They had committed a serious offence despite being educated.
A total of 24 accused, including accused Hafeez Hussain alias Adnam, Sibli Abdul Karim, Saduli Abdul Karim, Nasir Ahmad Liaqat, Zahid Qutbuddin Sheikh, and Mufti Abdul Bashar, were arrested, and charge framed in court.
2008 Ahmedabad serial blast
A series of 21 bomb blasts hit Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, within a span of 70 minutes. The lives of 56 innocent citizens were lost, and over 200 people were injured.
In a verdict given by the Ahmedabad special court in 2022, 38 were sentenced to death and 11 were sentenced to life imprisonment.
