The court of Additional District Judge (I) Rajesh Rai has awarded the death sentence to two accused convicted in the Shramjeevi Express terror blast case. The 2005 train blast using an RDX bomb had left 14 people dead and 61 injured.

Two operatives of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Hilaluddin and Nafikul Biswas were convicted by the court on December 22 and the quantum of punishment was announced on Wednesday.

While Hilaluddin, a resident of Bangladesh has been accused of planting a bomb on the train, Nafikul Biswas who is a resident of West Bengal was accused of helping him.

Two others in the Shramjeevi train blast case were given death sentences in 2016.

The RDX bomb had been kept in the general coach.

The two convicts are at present lodged in Hyderabad jail in another case. The duo’s final hearings dragged on for six years due to several adjournments.

Eyewitnesses had reported that two young men boarded the train with a white suitcase. Shortly afterwards both had jumped out of the moving train and fled, leaving the suitcase in the train.

A few minutes later, the explosion shook the train and killed 14 people.

In all, six people, all Bangladeshi nationals, were accused in the case.

Roni Alamgir and Obaidur Rahman, convicted in 2016 for assembling the bomb, have appealed their death sentences in the Allahabad HC.

Two others, Ghulam Razdani a.k.a. Yahya and Sayeed, died during the pendency of the case.

District government counsel Virendra Pratap Maurya submitted before the court and prayed to the court for maximum possible punishment.

After hearing the arguments on both sides, the court had fixed January 3 as the date for pronouncing quantum of punishment.

(The story has been published via a syndicated feed with a modified headline.)