The 2006 Varanasi twin-blast convict Waliullah Khan was on Monday sentenced to death in one case and was given life imprisonment in another case by the Ghaziabad District Court in Uttar Pradesh.
Waliullah was on Saturday held guilty in two cases related to the blasts on March 7, 2006 in which 20 people were killed and over 100 were injured. The death sentence will have to be confirmed by the Allahabad High Court.
While two blasts took place at Varanasi's Sankat Mochan Temple and Cantonment Railway Station, two more bombs were recovered from Gudaulia residential locality and Ganga ghat that evening, according to a Rediff News report from 2006.
"If the third bomb [that was recovered] exploded, then nothing would have remained in a 200-metre radius," reported DD News quoting government counsel Rajesh Sharma.
Ghaziabad District Sessions Judge Jitendra Kumar Sinha convicted Waliullah in two cases under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections of murder, attempt to murder and mutilation, and under the Explosives Act, district government counsel Sharma told PTI.
However, Waliullah was acquitted in a third case because of lack of evidence.
Waliullah was arrested in April 2006 by the special task force that had claimed that he was linked to the terrorist outfit Harkat-ul-jehad Al Islami and was the mastermind behind the blasts.
(With PTI inputs)
