Bengaluru: A special NIA court Tuesday sentenced seven accused, including prime accused T Nazeer, to seven years in prison in a 2023 Bengaluru grenade and ammunition recovery case. The court imposed a fine of Rs 48,000 on each of the convicted accused.In 2023, Bengaluru City police had recovered four live grenades, a pistol and ammunition from a house in RT Nagar. Acting on intelligence, police had seized explosive materials, walkie-talkies and maps, following which National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe.According to investigators, the accused had allegedly conspired to trigger blasts at multiple locations in Bengaluru. NIA said the accused were in contact with T Nazeer, identified as the mastermind of the 2008 Bengaluru blasts, and were allegedly radicalised by him while in prison. After their release, they are said to have plotted fresh attacks before being arrested in 2023.Besides Nazeer, Junaid, Syed Suhail Khan, Mohammed Umar, Jahid Tabrez, Syed Mudassir Pasha, Mohammed Fazil Rabani, Anees Fathim and Salman Khan were sentenced to seven year imprisonment. Chand Pasha and Dr Nagaraj, a physician, were handed sentence under Prevention of Corruption Act.Special public prosecutor Prasanna Kumar appeared for NIA. The court had reserved its verdict after hearing arguments before pronouncing the sentence on Tuesday.Inset Box: IS conspirator gets 6-yr jailAn NIA court has sentenced Arafath Ali, a key conspirator linked to the Shivamogga IS terror module, to six years of rigorous imprisonment for radicalising youth, facilitating terror funding through cryptocurrency and propagating terrorist ideology.A resident of Shivamogga, Arafath had fled the country in Jan 2020 to evade arrest. He was arrested upon arrival in New Delhi in Sept 2023. According to NIA, Arafath was an active member of the banned Islamic State and played a role in radicalisation and recruitment for the Shivamogga module.Investigators said he was involved in motivating co-accused to inscribe inflammatory graffiti in Mangaluru in support of IS and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), aimed at inciting communal disharmony and spreading unrest.
