A special NIA court of Patna headed by judge Gurwinder Singh Malhotra awarded death sentence to four Ranchi men namely Imtiyaz Ahmed, Haidar Ali alias Black Beauty, Numan Ansari and Mujibullah Ansari in October 2013 Patna serial blast case. They are among nine people whom the NIA court on October 27 had convicted for their involvement.
To another Ranchi man Firoze Aslam, the court awarded 10 years of rigorous imprisonment whereas Mohammed Iftiqar Alam who is also from Ranchi, the court awarded seven years of rigorous imprisonment.
The court awarded 10 years of rigorous imprisonment to Ahmed Hussain a native of Amanganj in Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh. Two convicts from Raipur district of Chhattisgarh namely Umar Siddiqui and Azharuddin Qureshi were awarded life imprisonment.
Imtiyaz Ahmed, Umar Siddiqui, Haider Ali and Mujibullah Ansari were also previously convicted in a separate case related to bomb blast in Bodhgaya temple. The special NIA court had awarded life imprisonment to them.
The serial blast had taken place on October 27, 2013 and it was planned and executed by operatives of terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen to eliminate BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Six were killed and around 89 persons were injured in this attack.
The court which pronounced judgment on last Monday termed it a rarest of the rare case and the crime committed by convicts deserved harshest punishment not less than death punishment. Special public prosecutor of NIA Lalan Prasad Sinha said that the Patna serial blast was the rerun of Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
But the lawyers of convicts requested the court for lesser punishment and said that they belong to poor background and they were misguided by some people to commit the crime. In this case the NIA court has given a month time for the convicts to file an appeal at the upper court against the judgment.
Six powerful explosions had taken place on Gandhi Maidan ground in Patna hours before Modi was scheduled to address the rally named as Hunkar rally to start his campaign for 2014 parliamentary elections. Another explosion had taken place inside a toilet of platform number 10 of Patna railway junction where a suspect Tariq Ansari (25) alias Enul had died due to injuries. Despite the terror attack Modi addressed the rally at the ground that remained historic.
The investigation was handed over to the NIA which disclosed that the entire conspiracy was hatched in Ranchi and Indian Mujahideen had developed terror modules in Ranchi. A number of youths were arrested from Sithio village and other parts of Ranchi who were tried and sentenced. NIA carried out nationwide raids and arrested more than a dozen suspects. NIA busted Sithio module of Indian Mujahideen.
Even the deceased suspect was from this village along with 15 years old boy who had participated in planning and execution of a terrorist attack on the rally. This minor accused was punished by a Juvenile Justice Board in 2017 with three years of imprisonment.
Intelligence reports had also suspected presence of Darbhanga module in Ranchi where suspected Indian Mujahideen operatives from Darbhanga were allegedly trying to indoctrinate youths.