Abdul Karim Tunda acquitted in 1993 serial blast case, two others get lifer

Jaipur: Abdul Karim Tunda (80), an accused in the serial blast case that rocked five cities in 1993, was acquitted by the TADA court of Ajmer in Rajasthan on Thursday. Two others Irfan (70) and Hameeduddin (44) were sentenced to life imprisonment. The police brought them to the TADA court at around 11.15 a.m. amid tight security. The three were accused in the serial bomb blasts in trains in Lucknow, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Surat and Mumbai on December 6, 1993.

On February 28, 2004, the TADA court had sentenced 16 accused to life imprisonment in the case. The Supreme Court had acquitted four men and upheld sentences for the remaining. Tunda was accused of a bomb blast in front of the police headquarters in Delhi in 1996. And in the same year, Interpol had issued a Red Corner Notice against him.

In 2000, there were reports of Tunda being killed in Bangladesh, but in 2005 Lashkar terrorist Abdul Razzaq Masood was caught in Delhi, who revealed that Tunda was alive.

Tunda was also among the 20 terrorists whose extradition to India was sought from Pakistan after the attack on Parliament House in 2001.

He was finally nabbed in 2013 from the India-Nepal border.

Abdul Karim was named ‘Tunda’ after he lost an arm while making a bomb. He faced about 33 criminal cases and has been accused of carrying out about 40 bomb blasts in 1997-98.

There are only three special courts across the country to hear the TADA cases. These are Mumbai, Ajmer and Srinagar. Srinagar Court is newly formed, hence most of the cases related to North India are heard in TADA Court of Ajmer whereas cases related to South India are heard in Mumbai.