NIA case: Five years imprisonment for 13 on terror charge

Bengaluru: An NIA court here on Friday sentenced 13 members of Laskar-e-Toiba and Harkat-ul-Jihad-E-Islami to five years imprisonment for plotting to eliminate politicians, police officials and journalists in 2012.

After the accused pleaded guilty, Special Judge for NIA cases C Muralidhar Pai pronounced the verdict and said since they had already spent three-and-a-half years in jail, they would have to serve the remaining one-and-half years term.

He also directed them to pay a total of Rs 31,000 as fine.

The Special National Investigation Agency Court had yesterday completed the final hearing.

In a crackdown ahead of Republic Day in 2012, the 13 were arrested by NIA for allegedly plotting attacks in different parts of the country.

The arrests followed simultaneous searches and raids at 12 locations in six cities - Bengaluru, Tumkur, Mangaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Lucknow, on January 22, with the support of local police.

Circuits for detonating explosives were recovered during the searches.

NIA had recovered alleged "incriminating' articles, including laptops, unaccounted cash, jihadi literature, videos and certain material for preparation of bombs from these places.

The agency had in 2012 received information that certain individuals from various cities in the country were in the process of organising themselves to commit terrorist acts in? different parts of the country.

Of the 13 convicts, four are from Karnataka.

While Syed Mujahid is a resident of Tumkur, Asif Ali alias Arman Saani, Suhail Ahmed alias Sohail alias Hafes Saab and Muhammed Abdul Ahad alias Bade Amir alias Sulaiman are from Bengaluru.

Others included 20-year-old Mohammad Aleem (from Lucknow), Mohammed Obedullah Khan alias Obaid alias Talha and Abu Anas, both from Hyderabad, and Mohammad Hussain Khan alias Jamil, resident of Mazgaon, Mumbai.