NDFB chief, 9 others get life term for 2008 blasts

Guwahati: A special CBI court here Wednesday sentenced National Democratic Front of Bodoland chief Ranjan Daimary and nine others to life imprisonment for the 2008 serial bomb blasts, in which 81 people were killed and 470 others injured. The NDFB has called a 12-hour Assam bandh on Thursday in protest against the court order.

The special court had earlier held Daimary and 13 others guilty in the case. Special CBI judge Aparesh Chakraborty pronounced the quantum of punishment for Daimary, George Bodo, B. Tharai, Raju Sarkar, Anchai Bodo, Indra Brahma, Loko Basumatary, Khargeswar Basumatary, Ajay Basumatary and Rajen Goyary.

Three other convicts — Prabhat Bodo, Jayanti Basumatary and Mathura Brahma — will be released after they pay a fine imposed by the court.

The bail of NDFB chief Ranjan Daimary, who was present in the court, was cancelled immediately after his sentencing, and he was arrested, while the 14 others were already in judicial custody.

The court’s verdict came over 10 years after the blasts took place on October 30, 2008, around noon, with at least 11 bombs going off almost simultaneously at three places in Guwahati and in Bongaigaon, Barpeta and Kokrajhar. The CBI, which probed the case, had claimed RDX, ammonium nitrate and Trinitrotoluene (TNT) was used to trigger the blasts.

Two accused — Mridul Goyary and Nilim Daimary — were acquitted in the case. “There were a total of 22 accused, out of which 15 faced trial. Seven others remain absconding while two of them are believed to be dead,” said T.D. Goswami, the special public prosecutor engaged by the CBI for the trial.

The family members of the accused, who were present in court, said they would challenge the special court’s verdict in a higher court.

The Union home ministry has, meanwhile, clarified that the government will not withdraw heinous crimes cases against members of militant groups even if they are now engaged in the peace process. Saying that the government has committed that it would withdraw the cases which are not heinous in nature, but only after a recommendation by district and state-level panels, security sources said the ground rules for the peace talks had a provision for scrutiny of cases only after the signing of peace pacts, not during the period of talks between the government and the militant groups. In case of heinous crimes, the sources said the law would take its own course.

Asserting that if adequate evidence was not found in such cases, the accused may be acquitted by the court but the government would not interfere with the judicial process.