JAIPUR: Nearly 14 years after 80 people were killed and more than 170 injured in eight successive blasts on a warm May evening, the kin of victims were still struggling to erase the memories of that day. On Wednesday, those memories came flooding back with the news that the high court of Rajasthan had acquitted all the four men convicted and sentenced to death for the blasts by the trial court.
“What is left for me to say anything now? The blasts took place in 2008 for which the accused were sentenced to death in 2019. Three years later we have a verdict that no one could have ever imagined,” said Ram Babu Yadav, who lost his brother Radhey Shyam Yadav.
Sachin Gupta’s two daughters Mehak, 6, and Diya, 3, died in the same terrorist attack. He has since been organising blood donation camps in memory of his daughters. He also went to see the four accused when they were brought to court at the trial stage. The acquittal by the high court came as a surprise to Gupta as to most others.
Rajendra Sahu, whose wife Sushila died in the explosions, said that the government should hold the police responsible and ask some serious questions about what went wrong.
“It sends a wrong message. None of us expected this outcome. I hope that the government is considering to challenge the acquittal, because this is not justice,” Sahu said.
One survivor who had a narrow escape said that the authorities may as well stop the probe once and for all.
“It is like all our pains and miseries are being turned into some kind of a joke. Why did no one check what the police were doing all these years? The acquittal is actually a good thing because now this charade will finally come to a halt,” he said without revealing his identity.
“What is left for me to say anything now? The blasts took place in 2008 for which the accused were sentenced to death in 2019. Three years later we have a verdict that no one could have ever imagined,” said Ram Babu Yadav, who lost his brother Radhey Shyam Yadav.
Sachin Gupta’s two daughters Mehak, 6, and Diya, 3, died in the same terrorist attack. He has since been organising blood donation camps in memory of his daughters. He also went to see the four accused when they were brought to court at the trial stage. The acquittal by the high court came as a surprise to Gupta as to most others.
Rajendra Sahu, whose wife Sushila died in the explosions, said that the government should hold the police responsible and ask some serious questions about what went wrong.
“It sends a wrong message. None of us expected this outcome. I hope that the government is considering to challenge the acquittal, because this is not justice,” Sahu said.
One survivor who had a narrow escape said that the authorities may as well stop the probe once and for all.
“It is like all our pains and miseries are being turned into some kind of a joke. Why did no one check what the police were doing all these years? The acquittal is actually a good thing because now this charade will finally come to a halt,” he said without revealing his identity.
