Mysore/Mysuru: A NIA (National Investigation Agency) Court in Bengaluru on Friday convicted three men for planting an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in the sensational blast case in Mysuru Court premises at Chamarajapuram in August 2016. The quantum of punishment will be announced on Monday (Oct. 11).

The IED packed inside a pressure cooker and kept in the Court Complex toilet, exploded at around 4.30 pm on Aug. 1, 2016, leaving a school girl, who happened to pass by in a van on the road close to the Court’s Compound wall, injured.

The convicted are prime accused Nainar Abbas Ali alias Library Ali,28, M. Samsun Karim alias Abdul Karim, 23 and Dawood Sulaiman, 23 and all of them are from Madurai in Tamil Nadu, who are lodged in Parappana Agrahara Jail in Bengaluru, following their arrest a months after the blast.

The NIA had taken over the probe from the Lakshmipuram Police at Mysuru on Sept. 20, 2016 after three similar explosions were reported from Court premises in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor in April, Kerala’s Kollam in May and Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore in September the same year.

During investigation, the NIA unearthed the conspiracy, according to which, the IED was planted in Mysuru Court toilet in  order to cause a huge damage, with Chamarajanagar-Tirupati express just about to pass by at the time set for the blast. But fortunately, the train was late on that day and also the railway crossing gate close to the Court was closed for the train to pass by. The toilet is located close to the compound wall that runs parallel to the Railway track. Also, there were no people inside the toilet when the blast took place and a splinter of the exploded bomb struck the school girl who happened to pass by in her school van, causing her injuries.

According to NIA Special Public Prosecutor P. Prasanna Kumar, the prime accused  Nainar Abbas Ali had in 2015 formed ‘Base Movement,’ a terror organisation based on the lines of international terror outfit Al-Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden.

Prime accused Nainar Abbas prepared the explosive in Madurai, while the second accused Samsum Karim came to Mysuru and identified the Court Complex where the explosive was kept and the third accused Sulaiman travelled from Madurai to Mysuru with the explosive and placed it inside the toilet along with a timing device.

Months after the Aug. 1, 2016 explosion, the NIA arrested five suspects. During the course of investigation, one suspect turned an approver, while charges were dropped against the other suspect for want of evidence, Prasanna Kumar said.

He further said that the convicted accused had recruited the other accused persons and hatched a criminal conspiracy to threaten Government departments, especially the Courts, holding them responsible for the injustice meted out to the minority community which they belonged to and for the alleged atrocities committed against them.