Delhi Court Grants Bail To 1996 Lajpat Nagar Blast Suspect On Bail After 28 Years

A Delhi court has granted regular bail to Mehrajuddin Bhatt, alias Juber, in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case. Bhatt was a wanted accused 28 years after the incident. He was declared a proclaimed offender on February 19, 1997, and arrested on July 9, 2024. The blast, which was orchestrated on May 21, 1996, in Lajpat Nagar Market, saw more than a dozen people dead, with several others injured. The attack was reportedly accepted by the Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front (JKIF).

An Additional Sessions Judge Hardeep Kaur, allowing his bail plea, ordered the deponent not to leave the country without permission of the competent court. It was averred that the statements of two other co-accused persons, namely Faridabad Dar alias Behenji and Latif Ahmed Waza, did not contain any inculpatory material qua [against] the petitioner, and that the petitioner has continued to work as a permanent employee of the Institute of Management and Public Administration, Natipora in the year 1989 until today.

The court also said that Farida Dar had already been discharged of charges of conspiracy on April 8, 2010, and Latif Ahmed Waza had already been discharged of charges of conspiracy. Bhatt’s counsel, Kartik Venu, opposed the plea of the police and submitted that Bhatt was not facing any charges other than being a co-accused. Venu argued that Bhatt is a respectable man and not a flight risk, as he submitted that the names of the discharged co-accused appeared only in some disclosure statements. The case was filed at Lajpat Nagar police station, but later it was transferred to the special cell.

Of the total 17 accused in this case, four are convicted, six acquitted, six declared POs, and one dead.