HYDERABAD: A Hyderabad court on Thursday acquitted all ten accused of involvement in the 2005 suicide bomb attack at a Task Force station in Hyderabad.
The Nampally Metropolitan Sessions Court pronounced the judgment, eleven years after the trial began.
Amidst tight police security, all 10 accused were brought to the court from Cherlapally central jail.
The court observed that the prosecution could not prove the charges framed against the 10 accused.
Mohammed Abdul Zahid, Abdul Kaleem, Mohammed Shakeel, Syed Haji, Ali Khan, Azmat Ali, Mahmood Baroodwala, Shaik Abdul Khaja, Nafees Biswas and Bilaluddin, were the ten accused.
The bomb blast took place at the Police Task Force office in Hyderabad's Begumpet neighborhood on October 12, 2005. The bomber and a home guard were killed by the explosion.
The special investigation team of Hyderabad central crime station (CCS) has nabbed 13 of the 20 accused in the case. Seven accused are still at large.
On the day of the incident, home guard Satyanarayana was at the Task Force office. The suicide bomber, identified as Dallin from Bangladesh, ran towards the home guard and detonated the bomb, resulting in their instant death.
The investigators claimed that Harkat ul Jihad Islami of Bangladesh (HUJI) was responsible for the attack and made a series of arrests in Hyderabad and other places across the country.
The SIT had filed a charge sheet against the accused in 2006, and the trial has been going on for the past 11 years.
Two of the accused died in an encounter with police in Karachi in Pakistan while seven others are still absconding.
Speaking to media, counsel of the accused said, "We are happy with the judgment given by the court. Some have been in jail for 11 years and some for seven years. They have gotten the freedom to live now."