Gujarat HC denies bail to Ahmedabad serial blasts accused

The Gujarat High Court today refused bail to one of the accused of the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case.
Justice J B Pardiwala rejected the bail application of Mohammed Samee Bagewadi, saying that he was accused of a very serious offence.
Twenty one blasts had rocked the city on July 26, 2008, killing 56 people. Over 70 persons are in jail in connection with the case.
Bagewadi, arrested from Karnataka in the same year, had sought bail to pursue his studies in architecture.
Nearly 1,000 witnesses in the case were yet to be examined and the trial was not likely to end in near future, Bagewadi had said in his bail plea.

He also said that police had found no evidence against him.

But the court held that it cannot go into "sufficiency or insufficiency of the material at this stage, more particularly when the trial is in progress".
Special prosecutor J M Panchal opposed the bail application, saying that the trial court had already examined around 350 witnesses and was conducting the trial on daily basis on the the Supreme court's directions.
The apex court had refused bail to a co-accused, he pointed out.