Security personnel at the bakery after the blast on February 13, 2010

April 18: A cyber cafe owner convicted of involvement in Pune’s German Bakery blast that left 17 people dead, including four youngsters from Calcutta who had left home in search of a career, was handed death today for the 2010 attack.

Pune additional sessions judge N.P. Dhote said Mirza Himayat Baig, the lone accused arrested for the Valentine’s Day-eve explosion, deserved death as the case fell in the category of “rarest of rare”.

The 32-year-old from Beed, Maharashtra, is the first Indian Mujahideen operative to be convicted and sentenced to death. He broke down in court, saying he would be the blast’s “18th victim” if he was punished.

Defence lawyer A. Rehman said he would appeal in Bombay High Court.

The sentence came three days after the Pune court had pronounced Baig guilty under various sections of the penal code, including murder and criminal conspiracy, apart from provisions under the explosives substances law and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

The Maharashtra anti-terror squad (ATS), which arrested Baig in September 2010, had claimed the attack was the first in which the Indian Mujahideen and the Lashkar-e-Toiba had worked together.

The February 13 explosion, a little over a year and two months after the 26/11 Mumbai attack, had again thrown up the name David Coleman Headley, a Lashkar operative who had done a recce of targets for the November 2008 siege. Investigators said Headley had also reconnoitred the bakery, a popular hangout for the young.

All those who died in the blast — including five foreigners — were under 35.

Among those dead were Calcutta siblings Ankik Dhar, 24, and Aninidyee, 19, of Salt Lake, Shilpa Goenka, 22, and Rajeev Agarwala, 23, of north Calcutta.

Ankik was an IIT Kharagpur alumnus, while Anindyee was a student of Pune’s Fergusson College. Their friend Shilpa had joined Japanese finance major Nomura based in Mumbai.

The bomb had gone off under the table where Shilpa, Ankik and Anindyee sat. The three were at the cafe to celebrate Ankik’s promotion at JP Morgan Stanley where he worked in Mumbai.

Rajeev was there with his classmates from Symbiosis Law School.

In the court today, defence lawyer Rehman argued for leniency, saying Baig was not directly linked to the blast. Six witnesses had claimed he was not present in Pune on the day of the explosion. Rehman also cited Baig’s age and said he was a teacher, not a dreaded criminal.

Special public prosecutor Raja Thackre countered. “Age cannot be a factor in terror cases,” he said, adding that 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab was hanged when he was 23.

Baig, who had chosen not to speak when pronounced guilty on April 15, asked the court for permission to read out a statement. “I am innocent. I have never been to the German Bakery. I have been falsely implicated by the ATS but I believe in the judiciary. If I am given punishment in the case, I will be the 18th victim of the blast,” he said, breaking down.

Six others named in the chargesheet as absconding accused are the Indian Mujahideen’s Yasin Bhatkal, who is alleged to have planted the bomb, founders Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal, Mohsin Choudhary and the Lashkar-e-Toiba’s Faiyaz Kagzi and Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal.

Jundal was arrested last year, but is yet to be booked in this case.

Prosecutors said over 100 witnesses were examined in the case, including waiters at the bakery.

The bakery reopened this January but its hottest selling item — the chocolate mousse — is not on offer. Only three members of the old staff remain in the new set-up.