NIA court awards life imprisonment to 5 in Bodh Gaya blasts case

Five Indian Mujahideen militants, convicted by a special NIA court here in the 2013 Bodh Gaya blasts case, were sentenced to life imprisonment today.

Special NIA judge Manoj Kumar Sinha also slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 each on the five accused -- Imtiyaz Ansari, Haider Ali, Mujib Ullah, Omair Siddiqui and Azharuddin Qureishi -- who had been convicted on May 25.

The world-renowned Buddhist pilgrimage town Bodh Gaya, about 90 km from capital Patna, was rocked by a series of blasts on July 7, 2013 which had left a number of people, including some monks, injured though there were no casualties.

In addition to the five convicts, another accused Taufiq Ahmed was held guilty in the case by a juvenile court in October last year and sent to a remand home for three years.

All the six are also among those facing trial in the Patna blasts case of October, 2013, when a series of explosions took place at the historic Gandhi Maidan while the maiden rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was then Gujarat chief minister, was underway.

Talking to reporters after the verdict was pronounced, special public prosecutor Lalan Kumar Sinha said, "The court was fully convinced with our contention that the intention of the accused was to cause heavy casualties and hence they deserved the maximum possible punishment."
Sinha also said that among the five convicts, "Haider Ali was punished with an extra fine of Rs 10,000 because it was established that on the basis of admissible evidence, he had entered the Bodhi Temple premises shortly before the blasts took place."