RANCHI: Jahida Khatun, a 75-year-old woman of Jharkhand, was in tears after hearing that her son was acquitted in the case related to the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts that had claimed 56 lives and left over 200 injured.
Her son, Manjar Imam, is one of the 28 people who have been acquitted in the case.
A special court in Ahmedabad on Tuesday convicted 49 people.
"We had full faith in the judiciary. But my son has lost 13 precious years (of his life). He got justice but it is delayed," Khatun, a resident of Ranchi, told PTI.
The elderly woman said her husband could not come out of the shock and died a year after the incident.
Manjar's brother Mohammad Safdar Imam rued that after he was branded "terrorist", they were socially boycotted and even the children of the family could not get admission to any good school.
"We request the government to expedite court trials so that innocent are not punished," he said.
Imam claimed that Manjar has not even gone to Gujarat even once but attended a religious meeting in Kerala.
"He had been framed in the case," he alleged.
Imam said now the whole family is eagerly waiting for the release of Manjar, now lodged in Tihar Jail.
The family members of the other Ranchi-based accused, Danish, who too was acquitted, refused to talk to the media.
As many as 20 explosions had ripped through Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008.
In his verdict, which came 13 years after the deadly blasts, special judge A R Patel acquitted 28 accused, giving them the benefit of doubt.