All convicted hail from Madurai; Person who recced the Court gets five years imprisonment

Bengaluru: The Special Court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has announced sentences for three convicts held guilty of planting an Improvised Explosive Device inside a cooker at a Mysuru Court on Aug. 1, 2016. A girl sustained minor injuries in the blast.

Judge Kasanappa Naik yesterday convicted Nainar Abbas Ali alias Library Ali, 28; M. Samsun Karim alias Abdul Karim, 23 and Dawood Sulaiman, 23, all from Madurai, last Friday. Nainar Abbas Ali, who hatched the plan, was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and fined Rs. 43,000. Dawood Sulaiman, who planted the IED, was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and fined Rs. 38,000.

Their sentences include seven years of rigorous imprisonment and the rest simple imprisonment. Samsun Karim, who surveyed the Court and identified the place where the bomb should be placed, was sentenced to five years simple imprisonment and fined Rs. 25,000.

They were convicted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Section 120b (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Substantial sentences in respect of all the above offences shall run concurrently.

The NIA, which took over the case, said the probe revealed the bomb blast to be one among the series of five blasts, all in Courts, set off by members of the Base Movement, an organisation, owing allegiance to Al-Qaeda.

NIA had filed a chargesheet in 2017 and the trial concluded in May 2021. The NIA Special Court held the three guilty. Special Public Prosecutor P. Prasanna Kumar contended that Ali had in 2015 formed the terror organisation ‘Base Movement’ on the lines of Al-Qaeda. The main accused had then recruited the other accused and hatched the criminal conspiracy.