Bangalore: 6 convicted in IISc bombing case given life imprisonment

Mangalore Today / NDTV

Bangalore, Dec 19 :  Six persons found guilty of plotting terror attacks in Bangalore were today sentenced to life imprisonment by a city fast-track court.

They were convicted on Saturday, after the court found them guilty of having links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Another accused was acquitted for want of evidence. The six were convicted for criminal conspiracy, waging war against the country and under provisions of the Explosives Act.

 

 

They were arrested in January 2006 during investigations into the December 28, 2005 attack at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, when delegates coming out of an international conference were fired on. A retired professor of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, MC Puri, died while four others were injured in this attack.

The police did not charge them with involvement in the IISc case but accused them of plotting other attacks on prominent city landmarks.

The six sentenced today are Mohammed Riaz-ur-Rehman, Afzar Pasha, Mehboob Ibrahim Saab Chopdar, Noorulla Khan, Mohammed Irfan (28) and Nazim Uddin alias Munna.

Riaz-ur-Rehman, who was the self-styled south India commander of the LeT, was arrested from Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh. He led the police to the rest of the accused, who he had recruited from Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh to carry out the terror attacks. According to the police, the six accused were involved in recruiting youngsters to the LeT.

According to the police, Riaz-ur-Rehman had spent some years in Saudi Arabia before 2000 and had admitted to plans to procure arms and ammunition from abroad.  The funds were to come from Saudi Arabia, the police claimed. According to the police, the accused had also set up a charitable trust and used it to carry out anti-national activities.

Over 70 witnesses were examined by the court during the trial which lasted over two-and-a-half years.