Overview
- The two-judge bench set aside the 2013 conviction and ordered Ilyas’s immediate release unless wanted in another case, subject to a personal bond and two sureties under Section 437-A CrPC.
- The court held that, once the confession was excluded, no legally admissible evidence remained to prove his complicity in the bombing.
- The judges noted the tape recorder allegedly used to capture the confession was never produced and witnesses to extra-judicial confessions turned hostile.
- Forensic findings confirmed an RDX-based device placed under the driver’s seat and remotely detonated, with the court recording 18 deaths and dozens of injuries.
- In 2013, the trial court acquitted co-accused Tasleem but convicted Ilyas and Abdul Mateen, and the High Court’s order addressed only Ilyas’s appeal.