1996 Sonipat bomb blasts: LeT bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda awarded life sentence

A court here on Tuesday pronounced a life sentence for 1996 Sonipat bomb blasts convict Abdul Karim Tunda.

Sonipat: A court here on Tuesday pronounced life sentence for 1996 Sonipat bomb blasts convict and alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative Abdul Karim Tunda.

The order was passed by the court of sessions judge Sushil Garg.

Abdul Karim alias Tunda was on October 9 pronounced guilty in the Sonipat bomb blasts case by the local court. 

On December 28, 1996, a series of blasts took place at a cinema hall in Sonipat in which several persons were injured.

Tunda, a trained LeT bomb-expert, was named as the main accused in the case. 

Tunda, now 75, was among the 20 terrorists that India had asked Pakistan to hand over after the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. 

He was arrested by Delhi Police from Banbasa near the India-Nepal border on August 16, 2013, and is suspected to have been involved in 40 blast cases across the country.

Tunda’s statements in the case were recorded in September this year. He had claimed that he was in Pakistan at the time of the blasts. 

Forty-three witnesses, including those who were injured in the blasts, had also recorded their testimony during the trial, based on which Tunda was pronounced guilty.