At the hearing of the Bodh Gaya serial blast case, five of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment. A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court announced the verdict this morning.
A total of 90 witnesses were analyzed during the hearing last week. The convicts were members of the Student Islamic Movement of India with connections to Indian Mujahideen.
The accused are Umer Siddiqui (39,) Azharuddin Qureshi (25,) Imtiyaz Ansari alias Alam (35,) Haider Ali alias Black Beauty (30) and Mujibullah Ansari (28.) The five accused were also instructed to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000 each.
The special Public Prosecutor explained another accused Taufique Ansari involved in the blasts was a minor at that time. He further stated, “Being a juvenile at that time, his case was transferred to the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), which had sentenced him to three years imprisonment on October 11, 2017.”
On the 7th of July 2013, nine bombs went off in the Buddhist pilgrim town of Bodh Gaya. Five people and two monks were injured in the serial bomb blasts.
