PATNA: In a significant development, Bihar High Court on Wednesday, September 11 overturned the capital punishment given to four accused into life imprisonment in connection with the Patna Gandhi Maidan serial bombings of 2013, which claimed six lives alongside injuring 82 people.
Imtiyaz Alam, Haider Ali, Mojibul Ansari and Numan Ansari who were earlier awarded capital punishment by a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in the year 2021 sentenced to life terms in the fresh order. Two of the other accused who were earlier sentenced to imprisonment for life will serve the punishment as it is.
All the accused in the case have approached the High Court after the lower court pronounced its verdict, sentencing four accused to death along awarding life terms to two of the accused Umer Siddique and Azharuddin Qureshi.
The case pertains to serial bomb blasts carried out by the accused in the year 2013, during Hunkar Rally of the then Gujrat Chief Minister and projected Prime Ministerial candidate of National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Narendra Modi.
In a series of explosions that had jolted the capital city of Patna, six persons were killed while 82 people had sustained injuries. The first explosion took place on platform no 10 of Patna Junction on the morning of 27th October, this followed explosion in Gandhi Maidan and adjacent areas, where Narendra Modi was addressing an impressive gathering.
The NIA took over the investigation of the case within a week of the incident. The agency filed its charge-sheet in the case in the year 2014, naming 11 people in connection with the deadly blasts. According to the NIA, all the charge-sheeted accused were connected with the outlawed Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
The NIA court after a long trial pronounced its verdict in the case in November 2013, terming the case “Rarest of the Rare”. Other than awarding 4 prime accused to capital punishment and two others to life terms, the court awarded 10 years of rigorous imprisonment to Ahmad Hussain and Firoz Aslam. Another accused Ifteqar Alam was handed over a punishment for seven years while the court referred a minor accused to Juvenile Justice Board. The court had acquitted Fakruddin citing lack of evidence.
