Pune German bakery blast: India court commutes death sentence Published duration 17 March 2016

image copyright Getty Images image caption The blast targeted the bakery when it was full of tourists and students, killing 17 people and wounding 64

An Indian court has set aside the death penalty for a man found guilty of plotting a blast at a German bakery in the western city of Pune in 2010.

Mirza Himayat Baig, who belonged to a banned militant group, will now serve a life sentence for possessing explosives.

The high court in Mumbai (Bombay) cleared him of all other charges.

The blast targeted the bakery when it was full of tourists and students, killing 17 people and wounding 64.

Five foreigners were among the dead.

Baig had appealed against the death sentence, delivered by a trial court in Pune in April 2013.

On Thursday, the Bombay High Court cleared him of more serious charges of murder and conspiracy.

The defence had maintained that he was not in Pune when the explosion happened on 13 February 2010.

He was arrested the following September after investigators found a cache of explosives at his home in Latur in Maharashtra.

The prosecution had said the blast was planned at a meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where Baig, a resident of Maharashtra state, was given bomb-making training.

The German Bakery is located near the Osho Ashram, a mystic centre popular with visitors to Pune.

Reports said an unattended package exploded when a waiter in the restaurant attempted to open it.

The bombing was the first major strike of its kind in India since the deadly Mumbai attacks of 2008.