HC orders release of convict in stadium blast case

BANGALORE, 17/04/2010: Police and Bomb squad searching for a clue at Gate no-12 where blast took place near KSCA stadium during the IPL cricket match on Cubbon Road, in Bangalore on April 17, 2010. Seventeen persons, including nine police personnel, were injured when two low-intensity IEDs went off outside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium ahead of the IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians. Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

The Karnataka High Court has directed the authorities of the Bengaluru Central Prison in Parappana Agrahara to release Gauhar Aziz Khomani, 37, a native of Darbhang district in Bihar, who was convicted in five separate cases of planting bombs at different locations and the blast that occurred outside M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here in 2010 during an IPL match. After perusing the records of the cases, it found that Khomani has already spent seven years in custody, which is equivalent to seven years imprisonment imposed on him by the trial court.

The High Court said he could be released from prison if he was not required in any other case.

Also, the High Court noted that the trial court itself had said that the maximum sentence of seven years would run concurrently and the convict would be entitled to set-off the period of custody undergone by him as “under trial prisoner” in each of the cases.

A Division Bench comprising Justice John Michael Cunha and Justice H.T. Narendra Prasad passed the order while setting aside the April 8, 2019 order of the trial court, which held that Khomani has not yet completed his sentence as he was taken into custody in the cases only in 2016 and hence he has to serve sentence of four more years.

The Bench found from the records that Khomani was produced before the trial court under body warrant on April 3, 2012 in the cases as early as on April 3, 2012 and hence remained in custody of the court since then, though he was transferred to other courts in connection with other cases registered against him.

“There is nothing on record to show that the appellant [Khomani] was enlarged on bail or was released in any of the above cases during the pendency of trial. Under the above circumstances, it is deemed that the legal custody of the appellant continued with the trial court... and appellant having already served full term of sentence awarded... the trial court was not justified in holding that the appellant is yet to serve remaining period of sentence...,” the High Court observed.

Khomani, during the trial, had admitted the charges levelled against him under provisions of the Unlawful Activties (Prevention) Act and the Indian Penal Code, and the trial court on July 9, 2018 convicted him under the charges of being a member of a terrorist gang/organisation, harbouring terrorists and criminal conspiracy.