Highlights:
- NIA court orders the death penalty for 4 convicts and life imprisonment to 2 convicts in the 2013 serial blast case.
- 9 out of the 10 accused were convicted last week by the NIA court of Justice Gurvinder Singh Malhotra.
- Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) backed convicts Haider Ali, Numan Ansari, Mujibullah Ansari and Imtiyaz Ansari given the death penalty.
- Umer Siddique and Azharuddin Qureshi were sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment.
A special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court in Patna passed its verdict in the Patna serial blast case which rocked the city in 2013. A series of eight bomb blasts were carried out at the “Hunkar” rally organised for BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi. An estimated 300,000 participants were attending the rally of which six were killed and 85 were wounded.
The NIA court of Justice Gurvinder Singh Malhotra, in the former week, had convicted 9 out of the 10 accused. One was acquitted on account of lack of evidence.
Shedding a little light on the course of blasts, the first bomb went off at platform no 10 of Patna Railway station and the remaining in and around Gandhi Maidan where Narendra Modi was to deliver the speech. 14 additional unexploded bombs were discovered later.
The case was officially handed over to the NIA in the year 2013 and the mastermind backing the attacks, Haider Ali, was detained in 2014. Numerous suspects from the organisations – Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Indian Mujahideen (IM) were summoned in the case. 250 prosecution witnesses testified before the trial court for cross-examination.
SIMI backed terrorists, Haider Ali aka black beauty, Numan Ansari, Mujibullah Ansari and Imtiyaz Ansari were sentenced to life imprisonment. The special court of ADJ-XV Gurvinder Singh Malhotra concurrently ordered stringent life imprisonment to fellow convicted associates, Umer Siddique and Azharuddin Qureshi, a 10 years jail term to Ahmad Hussain and Mohammad Feroz Aslam and a 7 years term to Mohammad Ifteqaar Alam.
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The convict Fakkruddin was acquitted in the court on grounds of insufficiency of evidence against him. All 9 convicts were adjudged guilty by the court on 27th October.
Furthermore, the court reprimanded the culprits by ordering a fine of Rs. 90,000 each for Haider, Numan and Majibullah and Rs. 80,000 for Imtiyaz Ansari under pertinent sections of the IPC including 120B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 121 (waging war/attempting to wage war against the government), The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) and The Explosive Substances Act.
Umer and Azharuddin have been fined Rs. 60,000 each under applicable sections of the IPC and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act alongside Ahmad and Ifteqaar who were slapped with a fine of Rs. 10,000 each given the Section 201 of the IPC and The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Non-fulfilment of fines would subject each of them to undergo an extra month of imprisonment.
