REFUGEE

CHENNAI: Describing the February 14, 1998, serial blasts in Coimbatore as an event of ‘‘unimaginable terror and horror,’’ the Madras High Court
on Friday upheld the life imprisonment awarded to 17 persons and a 13-year term given to another culprit. ( Watch Video )

But overruling the trial court, the court acquitted 22 persons of all charges and ordered that they be set free immediately. The judges blamed the Tamil Nadu government’s failure to invoke special laws having more teeth and the failure of the police to ensure a ‘‘focussed and a methodical investigation’’ for a majority of the life convicts walking free. Though the serial blasts had a ‘‘paralysing effect’’ on civil society, the prosecution invoked only ‘‘ordinary penal law,’’ the judges observed, and said the incident was an ‘‘extraordinary occurrence.’