On Wednesday, January 3, a verdict by a sessions court has handed death sentences to two persons for their roles in orchestrating the 2005 Shramjeevi Express train blast. The attack, which occurred near Jaunpur station in Uttar Pradesh, resulted in a tragic toll of at least 14 deaths and left over 62 people injured.

The court, on Wednesday, convicted and sentenced Bangladeshi national Hilaluddin and Nafikul Vishwas from West Bengal for their involvement in the train blast. They were found guilty on December 23 and also ordered to pay a fine of Rs 5 lakh each.

According to District government counsel Satish Pandey, the additional sessions court judge, Rajesh Kumar Rai, pronounced the death sentences for Hilal alias Hilaluddin, accused of planting the bomb, and Nafikul Vishwas, charged with aiding him. Additionally, two other individuals involved in the same case were sentenced to death in 2016.

Both convicts are presently serving time in Hyderabad jail for a separate case. The prolonged legal process spanned six years with numerous adjournments before the final sentencing.

Stringent security measures were in place during the court proceedings, and after the pronouncement of the punishment, the convicts were transported to jail in a police vehicle.

The blast, occurring around 5:00 pm on July 28, 2005, targeted a coach of the Patna-New Delhi train. The prosecution said that the explosive material RDX was concealed in the coach’s toilet, a method previously used in terrorist attacks such as the Ayodhya train bombing in June 2000.

Eyewitnesses recalled two young men boarding the train at Jaunpur carrying a white suitcase. They later got off the moving train without their suitcases, moments before the explosion occurred.

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