Bengaluru assassination plot: 13 get five years in jail

Bengaluru, Sept 16: A special court on Friday sentenced 13 people to five years in jail in connection with the assassination plot or the Lashkar-e-Taiba conspiracy case.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had chargesheeted these people in this case after it was found that they were involved in a plot that aimed at killing prominent Hindu leaders from Karnataka, Telangana and Maharashtra. All the 13 people had on Sept 1 pleaded guilty. All of them have already completed a jail term of 4 years during trial.

Those sentenced are Shoaib Ahmed Mirza, 27, a computer applications degree holder, Abdul Hakeem Jamadar, 30, Riyaz Ahmed Byahatti, 32, Mohammad Akram, 27, Ubedullah Bahadur, 28, Waheed Hussain, 31, an MBA, Dr Zafar Iqbal Sholapur, 31, Mohammad Sadiq Lashkar, 33, Mehboob Bagalkote, 32, Obaid-ur-Rehman, 26, an undergraduate student, Dr Nayeem Siddique, 32, Dr Imran Ahmed, 30 and Syed Tanzeem Ahmed, 27.

All people were convicted under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Indian Penal Code. The case was first registered by the City Crime Branch, Bengaluru.

It was stated that the banned terrorist organisation, Lashkar-e-Taiba had hatched a conspiracy and target important personalities from the Hindu community in Bengaluru and Hubbali. During the course of the probe the ambit widened and the police found that several leaders from Maharashtra and Telangana too were on the radar of the accused persons.

The probe also found that these people were also planning to target a well known columnist of a newspaper. Investigations also revealed that they were in touch with several persons from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and the intention was to wage a war against the government of India.

The NIA states that the conspiracy was originally hatched in Riyadh and it was decided that Hindu leaders, journalists, politicians and police personnel from Bengaluru, Hubbali, Nanded and Hyderabad would be targeted.

OneIndia News