Three persons were today awarded life imprisonment by a special NIA court here which found them guilty of attempting to murder two BJP youth wing leaders in Khandwa district in 2009.
Four other accused in the case were killed in an encounter near here hours after they escaped from the Bhopal jail killing a guard on Diwali in October last year.
NIA special judge Girish Dixit today handed down life imprisonment to Abdullah Hussain (27), Raquib Vakil (31) and Abu Faizal (33).
The three had shot at Khandwa Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) city president Pramod Tiwari and Khandwa BJYM city treasurer Raju Dubey in Khandwa on January 2, 2009.
Dubey was severely injured while Tiwari escaped unhurt, according to the prosecution.
However, the Judge absolved the trio under IPC sections 124 (A) (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) and 295 (A) (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings) and different sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Police had alleged that the three convicts waylaid the two BJYM leaders as they wanted to settle score with them for allegedly disrupting their worship frequently, according to defence lawyer Zeenat Anwar told PTI.
The convicts fired upon the two BJYM leaders when they were about enter a temple as they used to make boys dance and beat the drums in front of a mosque to allegedly disrupt their namaz on festivals of majority community, she added quoting the prosecution.
NIA Judge Dixit handed down life imprisonment to the convicts for injuring Dubey under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) and 10 years jail sentence for making attempt on Tiwari’s life.
Both sentences will run concurrently.
The four accused killed in the encounter were Aquil Khilji, Zakir Hussain, Amjad and Mehboob.
( Source – PTI )
