2000 Sabarmati Express blast case: Court acquits ex-AMU scholar Gulzar Ahmed Wani after 16 years of imprisonment

Barabanki sessions court of Saturday acquitted a former Aligarh Muslim University scholar in Sabarmati Express train blast case. The accused Gulzar Ahmed Wani, hails from Kashmir and was PhD scholar in the university before the arrest. Gulzar spent past 16 years in imprisonment before being acquitted on Saturday. 

On 14 August 2000, a blast in Ahmedabad-bound Sabarmati Express had killed nine people and left several others injured. 

Gulzar Ahmed Wani was arrested by Delhi Police in July 2001 from New Delhi Railway Station. He was later chargesheeted for 11 matters spread across Delhi, Agra, Kanpur and other places in Uttar Pradesh. The court has already acquitted Gulzar in all other matters. 

Earlier last month, Wani had approached the apex court to seek reprieve from the never-ending trial. The Supreme Court upon hearing the case reprimanded the police officials.

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It was a shame on the part of police to insist on judicial custody of an accused in the Sabarmati Express bomb blast, languishing in an UP jail for 16 years without bail, the Supreme Court said on April 27.

It also fixed a date in November for his release even if the trial is incomplete.

“It is a matter of shame. He has been acquitted in 10 out of the 11 cases but still you want him to be in jail without bail,” a bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and justice DY Chandrachud told counsel for UP government, who opposed bail of Kashmir resident Gulzar Ahmed Wani.