The trial of the October 30, 2008, serial blasts case has picked up momentum following the setting up of a special court in December last year to try only this case.
On the 10th anniversary of the serial blasts on Tuesday, a source said before setting up of the special court, the trial was progressing at a snail’s pace which was evident from the fact that till October 30 last year, out of 829 prosecution witnesses only 78 were examined by the court.
The near-simultaneous blasts in Guwahati, Kokrajhar, Barpeta Road and Bongaigaon had claimed 88 lives and injured 141.
“The trial, however, gathered steam after the special court was set up because it pruned the list of witnesses and reduced the number to 640 by leaving out the irrelevant witnesses in order to expedite the trial. Of the 640 witnesses, only eight remain to be examined by the court at present,” the source said.
“Now the special court is conducting day-to-day trial of the case and if everything goes accordingly, the trial should be complete within five to six months,” he said.
“Currently, the CBI officers who investigated the case are being examined by the court,” he added.
The source said the presiding officer (judge) of the special court, Aparesh Chakraborty, on May 9 this year had passed an order highlighting that the trial of the case has been “affected” by the inability of the senior CBI public prosecutor to examine witnesses in Assamese but it was sorted out with the appointment of advocate Pallab Katakey as special public prosecutor to assist the CBI public prosecutor in June this year.
The CBI, which took over the investigation of the case from Assam police in December 2008, had chargesheeted 22 accused, including NDFB leader Ranjan Daimary, in 2011.
Of the 22, three have died, four are absconding and 15 are tanding trial.
Daimary was released on bail in June 2013 for holding peace talks with the government.