Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday upheld a special court's February 2022 order that sentenced 38 operatives of the terror group Indian Mujahideen (IM) to death and 11 others to life imprisonment for the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts, which killed 56 people.

The division bench of Justices A Y Kogje and Samir Dave rejected all appeals filed by the convicts against the lower court's verdict and approved the state government's request for confirmation of the sentences. The convicts include Safdar Nagori, the former leader of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), and his associates from 11 states, including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, and Uttar Pradesh.

The high court also ordered the state government to pay a compensation of ₹10 lakh to the next of kin of those who died, and ₹5 lakh to those who were grievously injured in the attacks.

On July 26, 2008, a series of 21 bomb explosions took place across different areas of Ahmedabad within a span of 70 minutes, killing 56 individuals and injuring more than 200 others. The explosions also hit hospitals where blast victims were being brought for medical care, marking the first time medical facilities were targeted in such an attack.

A total of 78 persons were put on trial after the prosecution merged 35 different police cases, which included 20 FIRs filed in Ahmedabad for the 21 blasts and 15 FIRs in Surat, where bombs were planted but did not detonate. Of the 78 accused, 49 were convicted by the special court in February 2022.

Special Public Prosecutor Amit Patel stated that the state government had presented all evidence against the convicts during the high court trial. The high court heard the case for more than one and a half years, moving to day-to-day hearings from February this year. Patel added that the court has directed the state government to complete the compensation payouts before March 30, 2027.

The February 2022 ruling marked the first time that so many convicts were given the death sentence by a court at one time. Previously, in January 1998, a TADA court in Tamil Nadu had sentenced 26 individuals to death for the 1991 assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.