 A court in India acquitted eight people Saturday who were blamed for planting a bomb in a bus in the western commercial centre of Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, in 2002 that killed two and injured 50. The accused, all Muslims, were acquitted by judge A.P. Bhangale who said the prosecution had failed to prove the charges.Police had sought to build a case that the accused planned the December 2002 bus blast to avenge the deaths of hundreds of Muslims who died in Hindu-Muslim riots in February 2002 in neighbouring Gujarat state. The prosecution's case suffered a setback in March when key witnesses failed to identify the accused. The sprawling commercial centre of Mumbai, which is also famous for its shadowy underworld, has seen several bombings in the past and was rocked in 1993 by a series of blasts which killed some 250 people and injured over 1,000. The 1993 blasts were termed an act of revenge by Muslim mafia for the demolition of an ancient mosque by Hindu fanatics a few month earlier. Several top underworld bosses, who fled the country after the attacks, face charges over the blasts. In August 2003, two huge car bombs — one of them outside the city's famous Gateway of India monument — killed 52 people and injured 150.0. Police have blamed Muslim underground figures and Kashmiri militants for most of the blasts. |