New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of the death sentence awarded to Indian Mujahideen operative Mohammad Tanvir for his role in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts, which resulted in the deaths of 56 people. A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and Aparesh Kumar Singh agreed to hear Tanvir's petition challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict from July 7, which had upheld the capital punishment of 38 convicts in the case.
The terror attack took place on July 26, 2008, when 21 synchronized bombs exploded across Ahmedabad within a span of 70 minutes, killing 56 individuals and injuring more than 200 others. Directing a halt to the punishment, the Supreme Court ordered that original trial and high court records be secured. It also instructed the Gujarat government to provide all relevant probation officers' reports concerning Tanvir within an eight-week window.
Authorities at the concerned correctional facility were additionally directed to file a report detailing Tanvir's work performance, conduct, and behavior inside the prison over the same eight-week period. Furthermore, the bench ordered that a psychological evaluation of the appellant be conducted by a government medical hospital and submitted alongside the other reports. The apex court scheduled the next hearing for 12 weeks later, following a similar stay granted on October 1 to another co-convict, Ahmed Bawa.
The Gujarat High Court had previously dismissed appeals from the convicts, affirming a special court's February 2022 ruling that handed down death sentences to 38 individuals and life imprisonment to 11 others. In upholding the capital punishment, the high court pointed to the massive scale of the conspiracy, the intent to instill widespread societal terror, and the tragic loss of innocent lives during the coordinated attack.
Out of 78 individuals put on trial following the amalgamation of 35 separate police cases linked to the Ahmedabad blasts and unexploded Surat devices, a special court had convicted 49 people. The 2022 ruling marked a historic legal precedent as the first instance in India where 38 defendants were sentenced to death in a single trial. With the latest order, the Supreme Court has paused Tanvir's execution while awaiting institutional and psychological evaluations prior to a deeper review of the appeal.