BENGALURU: The Special Court has sentenced two persons in the 2013 Bengaluru BJP office blast case to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and ordered them to pay a fine of Rs 50,000. They have been identified as Daniel Prakash (37) and Syed Ali (36) from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. They were accused No 21 and 23, respectively.
“The detention undergone by the accused in judicial custody shall be set off against the term of imprisonment,” said CM Gangadhara, Special Judge for Trial of National Investigation Agency (NIA) Cases, in the order passed on Friday, while allowing the application filed by them to plead guilty to the charges levelled against them by the Central Crime Branch.
The court said the material available on record shows that the convicts have not caused any explosion. They have not attempted to cause an explosion and the investigation officer has not seized any explosive substances from them. But they supplied the gelatin sticks and detonators to accused No 16 for money, knowing that he was going to use them for terror activities. Those allegations attract the offence punishable under Section 6 of the Explosive Substances Act.
No sanction
The court said the prosecution has not obtained sanction from the state government to prosecute the accused for the offence under Section 121 of IPC and Section 16 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
In the absence of a sanction, this court cannot prosecute and convict them for the said offences even after the conclusion of the trial. On April 17, 2013, at 10.20 am, a bomb kept in a motorcycle parked in front of the BJP office in Bengaluru exploded. Twelve policemen and six civilians were injured. Several vehicles were damaged in the explosion.