Indian Mujahideen conspiracy case: Hyderabad resident among 4 sentenced to 10 years in jail

New Delhi: NIA Special Court, New Delhi on Wednesday sentenced four persons including a Hyderabad resident to 10 years of imprisonment in the Indian Mujahideen (IM) conspiracy case.

The case relates to the plot hatched by Pakistan-backed terrorists to trigger bomb blasts across India.

The four accused were in close association with IM members, including Pakistan-based key accused Riyaz Bhatkal and Yasin Bhatkal, based in India. They had done recce of important places, including Hyderabad and Delhi, and had also procured explosives as well as arms and ammunition.

The case pertains to the conspiracy hatched by the members of the Indian Mujahideen, which is responsible for carrying out various blasts in the country. These include Varanasi blasts of March 2006, Mumbai serial blasts of July 2006, UP courts serial blasts at Varanasi, Faizabad, and Lucknow in November 2007, Hyderabad twin blasts of August 2007, besides the Jaipur serial blasts, Delhi serial blasts, and the Ahmedabad serial blasts in 2008. IM was also behind the Chinnaswamy, Bengaluru Stadium blast of 2010, and the Hyderabad twin blasts of 2013.

The accused, identified as Danish Ansari (Darbhanga, Bihar) Aftab Alam (Purnea, Bihar), Imran Khan (Nanded, Maharashtra), and Obaid-Ur-Rehman (Hyderabad, Telangana), were convicted on July 7, 2023, under UA(P) Act in the NIA case (RC-06/2012/NIA/DLI). They had been arrested between January and March 2013. Under the sentence pronounced today, the Special Judge also imposed a fine of Rs. 2,000 on the accused Danish Ansari, and Rs. 10,000 on Aftab Alam.

Special Court had earlier framed charges against the four, along with seven others, on 31st March 2023. The other seven have been identified as Yasin Bhatkal, Asadullah Akhtar, Zia-Ur-Rehman, Tehsin Akhter, and Hyder Ali. The trial against them continues.