Patna’s special NIA Court sentences life imprisonment to all five accused in Bodh Gaya serial blasts

Patna, June 1: Patna’s Special NIA court announced life imprisonment to all the five convicted in the 2013 Bodh Gaya serial blasts case. The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court in Patna had convicted all the 5 accused of planting bombs around the Buddhist temple in Bodh Gaya.

 

Judge Manoj Kumar Sinha pronounced the judgment. The court on May 25 had convicted all five in the case. Two monks and several others were injured in the serial blast on 7th of July in 2013 at Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya. NIA had filed the charge sheet on 3 June 2014.

Around nine blasts within thirty minutes rocked the peaceful city of Bodh Gaya, marking the first terrorist attack on the soil of Bihar. The terrorists had planted a cylinder bomb under the Bodhi tree as well which luckily did not explode.

The NIA said terrorist organization Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was behind the blasts.

SIMI had allegedly hatched a conspiracy to target the Buddhist site to avenge the alleged killing of Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar army.

The NIA revealed that Haider Ali, who had been radicalized by SIMI member Umar Siddiqui in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, was the mastermind of the attack. He received explosives from Raipur and came back to Bodh Gaya. After investigating the place a number of times, he entered the temple premises in the guise of a Buddhist monk. Umar Siddiqui and Azharuddin Quraishi are natives of Chhattisgarh and the rest of the accused belong to Jharkhand.

The five convicts are also suspects in the 2013 October 23 blasts in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan, which took place while Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was addressing a rally. Seven people had died and hundreds of others injured in the seven blasts which became a major political issue in the run-up to 2014 general elections.