New Delhi: A special NIA court in Lucknow has convicted five members of banned SIMI and sentenced them to a period ranging from three to over seven years of rigorous imprisonment in the 2014 Bijnor blast case, officials said Friday.
In its judgement delivered on Thursday, the National Investigation Agency court sentenced Husna, Abdulla, Raees Ahmad, Nadeem and Furkan from three years to a maximum seven years 10 months for various offences including stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in which they were booked, they said.
All five had confessed to their crimes on Thursday after which they were sentenced by the court.
“The case relates to an explosion that had taken place in the house of Leelo Devi at Jatan Mohalla, Bijnor on September 12, 2014 and the criminal conspiracy hatched by members of banned organization SIMI to commit terrorist acts,” an NIA spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.
The case was earlier probed by Bijnor police which had registered multiple FIRs in the case before the NIA took over the cases on April 30, 2015 and November 12, 2015, they said.
“After the investigation of the case, a charge-sheet was filed against the five accused on February 3, 2018. They had pleaded guilty before the NIA special court yesterday and were accordingly convicted,” the official said.
—PTI

Press Trust of India