Patna: A special National Investigation Agency court here on Friday sentenced all five convicts in the Bodhgaya serial bomb blasts case to life in prison.
The court headed by Manoj Kumar Sinha had on May 25 held the five accused - Imtiyaz Ansari alias Alam (35), Haider Ali alias Black Beauty (30), Umer Siddiqui (39), Mujubullah Ansari (28), and Uzaharuddin Qureshi (25) - guilty under sections of the IPC, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Explosive and Substance Act. Special NIA public prosecutor Lalan Prasad Sinha said on Friday that the convicts were awarded life imprisonment and each slapped with a penalty of Rs 40,000. They will have to serve an additional six months in prison if they fail to pay the fine.
In addition, the court awarded 14 years' imprisonment to Haider Ali, the main conspirator of the operation executed by the Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi) and the Indian Mujahideen, under Section 458 (spread hatred in society on the basis of religious, caste, race, language, etc) of the IPC.
Imtiyaz, Haider and Mujibullah, all residents of Ranchi, were also sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment under Section 120 B (conspiracy) and Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC. Special public prosecutor Sinha said all the sentences will run concurrently.
On October 11, 2017, the sixth convict in the case - then a juvenile - was sentenced to three years' imprisonment by the juvenile justice board.
Altogether 90 witnesses were examined during the trial. The verdict in the terror attack case came in four years, 10 months and 19 days.
"This is the first judgment of the special NIA court after its inception in 2013," said a Patna civil court lawyer.
All five convicts were present when the verdict was pronounced in a jam-packed court. The district administration had made massive security arrangements for the court premises. "The whole temple premises had turned into a playground for terrorists on the fateful day," the court said in its judgment. "The offenders of such crimes should be dealt with iron hand and they deserved to be confined behind bars for a longer period."
The main conspirator Haider's mother, Rehana Khatoon, said in Hindi: "The security of the country is more important than a son."
Rehana, who ekes her livelihood by making bidis in a remote village of Aurangabad, said that Haider lived with his father, Mohammad Alam, in Ranchi.
Two Buddhist monks had suffered serious injuries in the blasts, which rocked the temple town on July 7, 2013. Altogether 13 improvised explosive devices were planted inside and around the Mahabodhi Mahavihara, of which 10 had exploded. Security personnel later defused three bombs.
According to the chargesheet, the attack was meant as revenge against atrocities on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. A Buddhist devotee of Myanmar had also suffered injuries in the blasts.
Explosive material and sketches of the Mahabodhi temple, a Unesco world heritage site, were seized from room number 8 of Eram Lodge in Ranchi, where Haider had put up with Mujibullah.
The arrest of Imtiyaz, who was injured in a bomb explosion near Patna Junction on October 27, 2013, the day of a rally by then prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, led to the NIA cracking the Bodhgaya blasts case.
