A designated TADA court in Ajmer on Tuesday remanded alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda in CBI custody for six days in a case relating to tiffin box blasts in Jaipur in 1993, in which a teenager was seriously injured. Tunda, lodged in Tihar Jail in New Delhi, was produced in the court following a production warrant issued against him.
The CBI remand is also applicable to the cases relating to serial blasts in five trains that left two persons dead and 22 injured in 1993.
The blasts took place on Rajdhani Express, Flying Rani Express, Andhra Pradesh Express, New Delhi-Howrah Express and Howrah-New Delhi Express on the first anniversary of Babri Masjid demolition.
The Union Government had handed over the probe into all of these cases to the CBI, which clubbed them in its charge sheet filed before the TADA court in Ajmer in 1994 with the contention that the bombings were an act of conspiracy with common intention. Tunda is an accused in all these cases.
The 72-year-old suspected LeT operative, arrested by the Delhi Police from India-Nepal border in August last year, is wanted in Rajasthan for the past 20 years in connection with the 1993 tiffin box blasts case and an explosion on Rajdhani Express near Lakheri in Bundi district the same year.
The CBI had last month sought time to produce Tunda in the court citing security reasons.
The TADA court had in April 2012 convicted two of Tunda’s alleged accomplices, Jalees Ansari and Abre Rahmat, in the tiffin box blasts case and sentenced them to 15 years and 20 years respectively in prison. Tunda’s involvement in the case was found during investigation and interrogation of other accused.
A teenager, Ramesh Meena, had spotted a tiffin box in Chandpole area in the Walled City here on September 30, 1993, and sustained serious injuries when the bomb kept in the tiffin box exploded. Similar bombs were recovered from Manak Chowk and Jalupura while the last live bomb was found near the historic Hawa Mahal.
The CBI investigated the case and arrested Jalees Ansari, Abre Rahmat, Jamal Alvi and Habib Ahmed in 1998 with the charges of manufacturing and installing the bombs.
