Indian court hands death sentence to 38 over 2008 deadly bombings

An Indian court has sentenced 38 people to death and ordered life in prison for 11 others for a string of deadly bomb blasts in 2008 in the city of Ahmedabad.

Judge AR Patel ordered the punishment on Friday after the prosecution pressed for the death sentence and described the incident as a "rarest of rare case".

On February 8, the court convicted 49 people over the attacks that killed 56 people as shrapnel ripped through markets, buses and other public places in Gujarat state's commercial hub. Over 200 people were wounded.

Those convicted were all found guilty of murder and criminal conspiracy.

"Special court judge AR Patel awarded death sentence to 38 out of the 49 convicted," public prosecutor Amit Patel said.

"Eleven of the convicted were sentenced to life imprisonment till death...The court has considered the case as rarest of the rare," he said.

A defence lawyer said they would appeal in a higher court the verdict that handed one of the country's biggest mass death sentences.

"We had sought lenient sentences for the convicts as they have already spent more than 13 years in prison," Khalid Shaikh told Reuters.

"But the court awarded death to the majority of them. We will definitely go for appeal."

Marathon trial

Nearly 80 people were charged in the case but 28 were acquitted.

All 77 accused have been held in custody for years, with the exception of one who was bailed after a schizophrenia diagnosis.

The explosions had badly shaken the western state of Gujarat where Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002 are believed to have killed some 1,000 people, mostly Muslims.

A group calling itself the "Indian Mujahideen" claimed responsibility for the coordinated blasts on July 26, 2008. It said the act was revenge for the 2002 riots.

The marathon trial in the case lasted nearly a decade, thanks to India's labyrinthine legal system, with more than 1,100 witnesses called to testify.

It was dragged out by procedural delays, including a legal battle by four of the accused to retract confessions.

Police also foiled a 2013 attempt by more than a dozen of the defendants to tunnel their way out of jail using food plates as digging tools.