Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court, while upholding the conviction of 49 people in the 2008 serial blasts case, noted a confessional statement revealing that then chief minister Narendra Modi was among the intended targets of the conspirators. The statement also disclosed their plans for mass killings.The confession came from Imran Ibrahim Shaikh, who gave a detailed account of what happened during meetings held by Indian Mujahideen operatives and training camps held in Vagamon, Kerala, and later in the Halol forest area of Gujarat.Shaikh implicated 19 co-accused in his statement. Describing the camp held in Kerala, Shaikh said in his statement, “They (speakers) also spoke about going to Afghanistan and doing Hijrat and also spoke in their speeches about targeting mass killings and did not object to conducting explosions and were happy about it. They also talked about the targeting of political leader; Narendra Modi. The camp went on until the whole night on Dec 12, 2007, and thereafter they parted ways and tickets were given to everyone.”Confessions by Shaikh and other accused, along with emails purportedly sent by Indian Mujahideen, revealed that the accused persons had planned the bomb blasts in retaliation for the 2002 riots.Shaikh claimed that key defendants in the serial blast case — Safdar Nagori, Aamir Parvez, Tauqir, Sibli, Mufti, Adnan and Nadvi Ansar — delivered speeches advocating jihad. Eight other accused persons had also made confessional statements but later retracted them. The prosecution nonetheless built its case on these statements, gathering evidence to implicate the co-accused.The trial consolidated 35 FIRs in all — 20 registered in Ahmedabad, where the blasts took place, and 15 in Surat, where planted bombs failed to go off.
