A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande warned that it would impose costs on the authorities for denying parole only on the ground that Baig had been convicted of terror charges.
Mirza Himayat Baig, the lone convicted accused in the German Bakery blast case, was on Thursday sentenced to death by a Pune sessions court.
The trial in 2010 conspiracy case to attack Nashik-based Maharashtra Police Academy will now come up for hearing on November 1, special public prosecutor Ajay Misar said.
Soon after a court sentenced Indian Mujahedeen operative Mirza Himayat Baig to death in the German Bakery blast case on Thursday, his family members approached Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, a prominent NGO of minority community, to help in filing an appeal against the sentence in Bombay high court.
The quantum of sentence would be pronounced on April 18.
A court in Pune on Saturday framed charges against Himayat Baig, the main accused in German Bakery blast case, and others. Seventeen persons were killed and over 50 injured in the blast at the German Bakery, a popular eatery in Pune's posh Koregaon Park area, on February 13, 2010.
Nine months after a powerful bomb exploded at the German Bakery in the posh Koregaon locality in Pune killing 17 people, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Saturday filed its chargesheet against the alleged mastermind of the attack Himayat Baig. Assistant Public Prosecutor for ATS A V Ausekar told judicial magistrate Swarup Bose that the accused had committed heinous crimes against the state of India.
A Nashik court remanded to police custody Himayat Baig, prime accused in the Pune German Bakery blast case, and his aide Shaikh Lalbaba Mohammed Hussain alias Bilal.
A Rehman, a senior lawyer, had appeared on behalf of Baig on September 20 before the magistrate hearing the case, ignoring an appeal issued by the Pune Bar Association (PBA) asking fraternity members to refrain from representing the accused in view of the "anti-national" nature of the crime.
The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad may invoke the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against the two alleged Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives, one of them a Pune blast suspect, arrested last week.
Nothing substantial was found about the role of two alleged Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives in the Bengaluru twin blasts after their questioning, the Anti-Terrorism Squad said on Thursday. On Tuesday, the ATS arrested Mirza Himayat Baig, 29, who allegedly heads the LeT's operations in Maharashtra, from Pune and his aide Shaikh Lalbaba Mohammed Hussain alias Bilal, 27, from Nashik.
Over the past year, the IB, police and also the Researh and Analysis Wing have collected material in connection with this blast and they reveal a foreign hand in this attack.
Two persons have been arrested from Pune and Nashik by Mumbai's Anti-Terrorism Squad in connection with the German Bakery blast case in Pune that left 16 people dead, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said on Wednesday.
The alleged mastermind of the Pune German Bakery blast, Himayat Baig, was trained to assemble explosives in Colombo by two of the co-accused in the case when they visited the Sri Lankan capital in March 2008, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad has contended in the chargesheet submitted to the judicial magistrate in Pune.
Mirza Himayat Baig, a suspected LeT operative arrested for his alleged role in Pune's German Bakery blast, had been to Colombo for training in bomb making for three weeks in 2008, a senior ATS official said on Thursday.
A cache of explosives, including two live hand-grenades, 28 cartridges, and five empty cases of firearms was found dumped in a garbage-carrying vehicle in the vicinity of Army Centre in Deolali Camp area near Nashik on Saturday, police said.
The Bombay high court on Thursday quashed the death penalty awarded to lone convict Himayat Baig in the 2010 German Bakery blast in Pune due to lack of evidence, but confirmed the life sentence imposed on him for possession of explosives.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday ruled out reinvestigation in 2010 Pune's German Bakery blast case, saying there was no need for it.
Confessions by Indian Mujahideen operative Yasin Bhatkal negate the Maharashtra ATS theory that convict Mirza Himayat Baig played a role in the Pune attack. Vicky Nanjappa reports
The appeal filed through advocate Nishant R Katneshwarkar raised 20 grounds while assailing the high court order.
In the backdrop of arrest of Yasin Bhatkal, alleged founder of Indian Mujahideen, condemned convict in German Bakery blast case, Himayat Baig has approached the Bombay high court seeking reinvestigation into his case by a neutral agency or a court-appointed Special Investigation Team.
Mumbai top cop Rakesh Maria's trusted man Dinesh Kadam also helped crack the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts' case, sent Abu Salem to jail and helped bust the Indian Mujahideen terror network in Mumbai.
Criminal jurisprudence is based on an interesting saying, "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer." However, that does not seem to apply to the Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad. There are several instances to show that the agency has botched up its investigation, the latest being Pune Bakery blast main accused Himayat Baig.