Ahmedabad (TIP)-A special court in Gujarat on Friday, February 18,  sentenced 38 people to death and 11 others to life imprisonment for serial bomb blasts that killed 56 people and injured 200 more in Ahmedabad 14 years ago. This is the first time that an Indian court has handed out capital punishment to so many convicts in one go, said legal experts.

The 49 convicts, which included former Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) chief Safdar Nagori, were punished for carrying out 21 blasts that ripped through the city during the busy evening hours of July 26, 2008 within a span of 70 minutes.

In the 7,000-page judgment, judge AR Patel said it was a rarest of rare case, according to public prosecutor Amit Patel.

As per Section 368 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the entire record of the proceedings will be now sent to the Gujarat high court for confirmation of the death sentences, the court said in its 59-page order on Friday. Till the high court decides on the case, all the accused will remain in jail, the order said.

On February 8, the court convicted 49 of the 77 accused, acquitting 28 people.

The public prosecutor said 38 people were convicted under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 302 (murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) and provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Eleven others were held guilty for criminal conspiracy and under various sections of the UAPA, he said. The court imposed a fine of Rs 2.85 lakh on 48 convicts and of Rs 2.88 lakh on another one.

The court also awarded compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the families of those who died in the blasts, Rs 50,000 to those who were seriously injured and Rs 25,000 to those who received minor injuries.

The families of the victims said justice was finally done. “I lost my son in the terror attack. There are many like me who have lost their dear and near ones on this fateful day. We have gone through a lot in these 14 years. Today, I can sleep in peace,” said Daxaben Modi, the 64-year-old mother of 18-year-old Ankit Modi, who died in the blasts in the old city area of Ahmedabad.

According to a government lawyer, it was the first time in the history of independent India that so many convicts were awarded the death sentence. In 1998, a Tamil Nadu Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court awarded the death penalty to 26 people accused of assassinating Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. “In one case (Rajiv Gandhi assassination), 26 people were given death sentence. But in this case, the number is 38,” said the public prosecutor Amit Patel.