GB blast: Baig's fate to be decided today

The court of special judge N P Dhote will seal the fate of sole arrested accused in the German Bakery blast case Mirza Himayat Baig (30), a resident of Beed, on Monday. If Baig is found guilty, the prosecution and defence will argue on the quantum of sentence. The state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested Baig on September 7, 2010 while five others have been declared absconders. Special public prosecutor Raja Thakare said that the prosecution has submitted enough evidence to prove Baig’s guilt while defence lawyers A Rehman and Kaynath Shaikh argued that the prosecution has not proved the motive. “There is no evidence against Baig,” they claimed.On February 13, 2010, a powerful bomb blast ripped apart the popular German Bakery located on North Main Road in upmarket Koregaon Park, killing 17 people including five foreigners – an Italian, an Iranian and two Sudanese -- and injuring 63. Some of the victims received partial or permanent disability. A mobile phone was used to trigger the blast.The complaint was registered with the Bundgarden police by the bakery cashier, Praveen Pant of Nepal. Immediately after the blast, the ATS claimed it to be the handiwork of Indian Mujahideen and Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.2,000-page chargesheetThe ATS claimed they zeroed down on Baig at Pulgate bus stand. The ATS in December 2010 submitted a chargesheet running into 2,000 pages. There were transactions between the six suspects and Baig and allegedly a Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT) member. Besides Baig, the Maharashtra ATS named six other accused -- all co-conspirators and absconding -- Ahmad Siddibappa Zarar alias Yasin Bhatkal, Riyaz Ismail Shahbandri alias Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Ismail Shahbandri alias Iqbal Bhatkal (all three from Bhatkal town in Karnataka), Mohsin Choudhary of Pune, Fayyaz Kagzi alias Zulfikar Fayyaz Ahmad and Sayyad Zabiuddin Sayyad Zakiuddin Ansari alias Zabi.However, the ATS has made little progress in tracking down the six suspects. All the suspects were charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 comprising  murder, attempted murder, forgery, waging war against the country and various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and Explosive Substances Act, 1908. Baig was also charged with forgery allegedly committed between September 28, 1995 and August, 2003 at Udgir and Beed. How the plot was hatchedThe blast conspiracy was allegedly hatched in Colombo in Sri Lanka in 2008 and the blast took place in 2010. The RTO licence that was recovered from Baig was under another person’s name.Later it was revealed that David Coleman Headley had visited the city before the Mumbai 26/11 attack and stayed in at a hotel in Koregoan Park and done a recce of the city. As per the chargesheet, Baig has a degree of Urdu teacher in a city-based reputed campus. He was trained to assemble explosives in Colombo, Sri Lanka by two of the co-accused in March 2008. On his return, Baig started a cyber cafe in Udgir and finalised the plan to bomb the Bakery in the last week of January 2010. Yasin Bhatkal assembled the bomb at Udgir and Baig accompanied him to Pune where Bhatkal planted the bomb at German Bakery, according to the chargesheet. Baig’s lawyer Rehman had argued, “Baig has been falsely implicated. He was detained on August 18, 2010 from Latur, but was shown as arrested in September 2010. He had gone to Colombo for selling garments and returned within days due to language barrier.”@dna