2006 Varanasi blasts: Quantum of punishment will be out on June 6
Sixteen years after multiple blasts in Varanasi, terrorist Waliullah Khan has been held guilty by a Ghaziabad court in two cases on Saturday. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on June 6.
The blasts at Sankat Mochan temple and cantonment railway station on March 7, 2006 had killed 20 and left over 100 injured.
District Sessions Judge Jitendra Kumar Sinha convicted Waliullah in two cases, district government lawyer Rajesh Sharma told PTI. Waliullah has been acquitted in one case due to inadequate evidence, he said.
"The punishment will be pronounced on June 6 at 2 pm," Mr Sharma said.
On March 7, 2006, the first blast took place at 6.15 pm inside Sankat Mochak temple. After 15 minutes, a bomb exploded outside the first-class rest room at Varanasi cantonment railway station.
On the same day, a cooker bomb was also found near the railings of a railway crossing in a police station.
Lawyers in Varanasi had refused to plead the case. The Allahabad High Court had transferred the case to the Ghaziabad district court.
In all the three cases, 121 witnesses were produced before the court.
In April 2006, the special task force, which was investigating the blasts, had claimed that Waliullah was linked to a terrorist group in Bangladesh, Harkat-ul-jehad Al Islami, and was the mastermind behind the blasts.