Bengaluru, Jul 10: A Bengaluru court today sentenced three of the 14 accused in the 2010 Chinnaswamy Stadium bomb blast case to seven years in jail.
The NIA designated court judge Siddalinga Prabhu sentenced them to seven years of simple imprisonment and one year of rigorous imprisonment, which would run concurrently.
On July 4, the court had reserved its order after the accused pleaded guilty.
The three - Gowhar Aziz Khomani, Kamaal Hasan and Mohammad Kafeel Akhtar - had filed the affidavit in the court that day, pleading guilty after it rejected their plea bargain.
They had sought leniency and lesser punishment.
The accused had been in jail for six years during the trial.
The counsel for the accused, Balan, said: "They pleaded guilty after facing tremendous pressure as they had already spent six years and two months in jail."
In all, there were 14 accused in the case. Seven are in jail. A few other accused are at large.
Five Improvised Explosive Devices were planted at the entrance of the stadium. Of them, two exploded injuring 15 people, including five security personnel, ahead of an IPL match between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore in April 2010.
The other three IEDs were defused by a bomb disposal squad.
Indian Mujahideen operative Yasin Bhatkal is the prime accused in the case and is presently lodged in Tihar Jail.
Another accused, Mohammad Qateel Siddiqui, died after he was lynched by Yerawada jail inmates in Pune.
Public Prosecutor C A Ravindra said the accused were from Bihar and visited Delhi to hatch the plan to explode bombs at the stadium.
However, they were not involved in preparing or planting the bombs, he said.
Comments
Add new comment