NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the bail pleas of some of the convicts in the 1998 Coimbatore bomb blasts case while noting that their act, in which 58 people lost their lives, was "unforgivabale."
Hearing the pleas by the convicts who said they were behind bars for over two decades, a bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said "bail is out of question" for those involved in the "atrocious" incident.
The convicts were approaching the apex court challenging the Madras High Court verdict upholding their conviction and sentence being listed for the first week of February 2024.
One of the advocates appearing for the convicts, while pleading for bail, said they have been awarded life imprisonment and are in custody for the last around 25 years.
"How many people died?" asked the bench, also comprising Justices C T Ravikumar and Sudhanshu Dhulia. When told about the number of people killed in the serial blasts, the court said, "They have been convicted for something in which 58 people had died."
"Bail is out of question," observed the bench, as the counsel for the state said apart from killing so many people, what the convicts had done to the city was "unforgivable".
"Look at what you have done. The nature of the crime is an important factor (in granting bail). The bail applications are dismissed," the top court remarked.