Lucknow: Varanasi serial blasts convict Waliullah Khan was sentenced to death by the Ghaziabad sessions court and was sentenced to life imprisonment in another case, sixteen years after the explosions rocked the city.
At least 20 people were killed and over 100 were left injured after blasts at the Sankat Mochan temple and the cantonment railway station on March 7, 2006.
Waliullah, a resident of Phoolpur in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj, was arrested by police after the blast took place and the trial of his cases were held in Ghaziabad after lawyers in Varanasi declined to defend him. He was found guilty by a Ghaziabad court on June 4.
Khan was held guilty in two cases related to serial bomb blasts in Varanasi in 2006 in which 20 people were killed and more than 100 were injured.
On March 7, 2006, the first blast took place at 6.15 pm inside the Sankat Mochak temple and the second bomb exploded outside the first-class retiring room at Varanasi Cantonment Railway Station 15 minutes later.
A third live bomb was unearthed in Gudaulia residential locality which was diffused, according to Rediff News report from 2006. It further quoted an intelligence official at the time saying that a fourth bomb was also recovered at Varanasi’s famous Gangaghat.