Indian court sentences 38 to death for fatal 2008 bombings
LA TimesNine men accused in a series of bombings in India are presented to the media in hoods in 2008. A court in India on Friday sentenced to death 38 people for a series of bombings in 2008 that left more than 50 dead and 200 wounded in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, which has a history of violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims. Judge A. R. Patel also sentenced 11 people to life imprisonment in the case in which more than a dozen bombs went off in several parts of Ahmedabad. The first blasts took place near crowded shopping centers in Ahmedabad and the second about 20 minutes later in and around hospitals where the injured were being taken. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister — the top elected official — of Gujarat state at the time.