Bodhgaya blasts: How an old SIMI cadre orchestrated the attack

On Friday, a special court awarded life imprisonment to 5 persons for their involvement in the Bodhgaya bomb blast case.

The judgment comes as a relief to the NIA as it was a tough case on hand. Investigations into the case revealed that Umair Siddiqui, an old SIMI cadre, was the master mind of the terrorist act. He along with Azharuddin Qureshi arranged the logistics, did the planning, organised hideouts, raised funds and procured explosives and chemicals used in the preparation of IEDs.

Haider Ali also known as 'Black beauty' was a trained bomb maker. Haider had close links with proscribed organisation SIMI and Indian Mujahideen. His entity "Black beauty" surfaced in the chats.

During planting of IEDs Haider Ali dressed himself like a Buddhist monk and left the dress which was later seized by NIA. Haider Ali's DNA was forensically matched with his Buddhist Monk attire. Mujibullah Ansari was Haider's roommate in Ranchi, from whose room a map of Bodhgaya blast site and explosive materials were recovered. Majibullah alongwith Haider Ali and Imtiyaz Ansari planted the bombs at Bodh Gaya.

After a trial spanning more than 3 years, Special NIA Court, Patna, Bihar held all the prosecuted accused namely Umer Siddiqui, Azharuddin Qureshi, Imtiyaz Ansari, Haidar Ali and Muzibullah Ansari guilty.

The Special NIA Court took a very strong view of the terror act committed by the accused persons and awarded punishment of life imprisonment for all the 5 accused persons namely.