On July 12, National Investigation Agency (NIA) Special Court here sentenced four persons to 10 years of imprisonment in the Indian Mujahideen conspiracy case relating to the plot hatched by Pak-backed terrorists to trigger bomb blasts across India.
The four accused were in close association with Indian Mujahideen members, including Pakistan-based key accused Riyaz Bhatkal and Yasin Bhatkal, based in India. The anti-terror agency said that the four accused had done recce of important places, including Hyderabad and Delhi, and had also procured explosives as well as arms and ammunition.
The accused, identified as Danish Ansari (Darbhanga, Bihar) Aftab Alam (Purnea, Bihar), Imran Khan (Nanded, Maharashtra) and Obaid-Ur-Rehman (Hyderabad, Telangana), were convicted on July 7, under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. They had been arrested between January and March 2013.
Under the sentence pronounced on July 12, the Special Judge also imposed fine of Rs 2,000 on accused Danish Ansari and Rs 10,000 on Aftab Alam.
On March 31, a Delhi Court framed charges against 11 members of the banned terrorist organisation ‘Indian Mujahideen’ for allegedly conspiring to wage war against India. However, the Court also discharged three accused for lack of proof in the same case.
The NIA alleged that the accused were functionaries of Indian Mujahideen undertaking “large scale recruitment/induction of new members for commission of terrorist activities in various parts of India, with active aid and support from Pakistan based associates as well as sleeper cells within the country to commit terrorist acts by bomb blasts at prominent places in India, especially in Delhi.” It is pertinent to note that Indian Mujahideen was as a banned terrorist organisation on June 22, 2009, and included in the First Schedule of the UAPA.
The NIA submitted that Yasin Bhatkal, one of the founders of Indian Mujahideen was “instrumental in motivating young Muslim boys into path of violent Jihad and to further indoctrinated them and to induct them into Indian Mujahideen.” Furthermore, the NIA submitted that Yasin Bhatkal played an active role in “causing bomb blasts resulting into loss of several lives, destruction of properties.”
The case pertains to the conspiracy hatched by the members of the Indian Mujahideen, which is responsible for carrying out various blasts in the country, including Varanasi blasts of March 2006, Mumbai serial blasts of July 2006, UP courts serial blasts at Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow in November 2007, Hyderabad twin blasts of August 2007, besides the Jaipur serial blasts, Delhi serial blasts and the Ahmedabad serial blasts in 2008.
IM was also behind the Chinnaswamy, Bengaluru Stadium blast of 2010 and the Hyderabad twin blasts of 2013, said the NIA.
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