The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the death sentence awarded to Abdul Hameed, the primary accused in the 1996 Dausa bus bombing in Rajasthan that killed 14 people, ordering a fresh trial after concluding he received inadequate legal representation.
A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol, and Sandeep Mehta also set aside the conviction of Pappu alias Salim, who had been serving a life sentence in connection with the attack. Additionally, the apex court rejected the state government’s appeals challenging the acquittal of six other individuals previously cleared in the nearly three-decade-old case.
Directives For New Proceedings
Citing the extensive passage of time since the explosion took place on May 22, 1996, on a Bikaner-bound bus traveling from Agra, the court instructed the Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court to assign the retrial to a designated court.
The bench specified that the new proceedings must be presided over by a senior judge with extensive experience in sessions trials, aiming to conclude the trial within one year. Hameed, who is a doctor, will be permitted to select defense counsel of his choice.
Case Background And Legal History
The top court’s decision alters rulings previously handed down in the long-running matter. In July 2019, the Rajasthan High Court had upheld Hameed’s capital punishment, ruling that he was the key figure responsible for planting the explosive device, while maintaining Salim’s life term for procuring the explosives. The Supreme Court subsequently stayed Hameed’s execution in December 2019.
The 2019 High Court judgment had also acquitted six co-defendants: five Jammu and Kashmir residents—Javed Khan, Latif Ahmed, Mohammad Ali Bhatt, Mirja Nissa Hussain, and Abdul Ghani—along with Rais Beg from Agra. The state had further challenged a 2014 verdict by a Bandikui court acquitting another accused, Farukh Ahmed Khan, but that appeal was turned down by the High Court and subsequently dismissed by the Supreme Court.
Apart from the Dausa transit attack, Hameed was also implicated as a key suspect in a separate case involving the placement of explosive devices at Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium on January 26, 1996.
