By IANS,
Hyderabad : A city court Wednesday acquitted 21 young men arrested for their suspected involvement in the bomb blasts here in 2007 and charged with criminal conspiracy to wage war against the state.
The seventh metropolitan sessions judge acquitted the 21 men, saying the prosecution failed to produce any evidence against them.
Those acquitted included medical student Ibraheem Junaid, Moatasim Billah, Rayees Ahmad, Abdul Raheem, Mohammed Javed and M.A. Majid. They were acquitted in similar cases in November.
With this, all those arrested after the blast in the historic Mecca Masjid and the twin blasts at a public park and a popular eatery here have been acquitted.
The police had registered cases against these young men for hatching a criminal conspiracy to wage war against the state and possessing jihadi literature.
Nine people were killed in the blast during Friday prayers at the 17th century mosque on May 18, 2007, while over 50 people were killed in the near simultaneous blasts at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat eatery on Aug 25 same year.
The police had blamed terror groups based in Pakistan and Bangladesh for the blasts and had also picked up dozens of local youth for interrogation. About 30 of them were detained for their alleged involvement.
Some of the arrested men were allegedly tortured in the police custody and this was confirmed by a fact-finding team of the state minorities commission.
The police have failed to crack the mosque blast case while it claimed that two terror suspects arrested in Mumbai a few months ago allegedly confessed to have carried out twin blasts in the park and the eatery.