Ara Court blast case – capital punishment to 1, rigourous life imprisonment to 7 accused

Kumar Rajiv Nayan

Ara : Additional District and Sessions Judge III, Ara, Tribhuwan Yadav, on August 20, 2019, sentenced to capital punishment Lamboo Sharma besides slapping a fine of Rs 22,000 on him and rigorous life imprisonment to seven other accused in Ara Civil Court bomb blast case. of 2015.

The sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment Akhilesh Upadhayay alias Musa and a fine of Rs 42,000, Nayeem Mian and his brother Chand Mian, Shyam Vinay Sharma, Pramod Singh, Rinku Yadav, and Anshu Kumar a fine of Rs. 40,000 on each of them.

The court had convicted eight out of eleven on August 17, 2019, and had fixed August 20, 2019 to announce quantum of punishment. The court had acquitted former MLA and LJP leader Narendra Kumar Pandey alias Sunil Pandey, Bijay Sharma, brother of Lamboo Sharma, and Sanjay Sonar for want of enough evidence against them. Plice had filed chargesheet against 11 persons and 39 persons had appeared in the court as witnesses.

One of the convicts Chand Mian had escaped from the court after marking his attendance on August 17, 2019, inviting ire of the court, which cancelled his bail bond and issued warrant of attachment against him and also directed Bhojpur SP to produce him before the court on August 20, 2019, at any cost. After the order of the court, police conducted raids to arrest Chand Mian, who surrendered before the court of the ADJ III in the afternoon on August 19, 2019, under mounting police pressure and the court sent him to jail. Chand Mian said that he had to go home as condition of his wife had deteriorated after informing his advocate.

It may me mentioned here that a bomb was exploded near the court hazat on the campus of Ara Civil Court on January 23, 2015, when the prisoners were being brought over for production before the court. Bomb carrier Nagina Devi alias Nagia Gond of Balia, Uttar Pradesh, and a constable posted at the court hazat Amit Kumar, son of Hare Krishna Ram of village Gaudadh under Shahpur police station in Bhojpur district, were killed in the blast while over two dozen persons were injured.

Taking advantage of the melee, two inmates of Ara jail who were brought over to Ara Civil Court for production : Lamboo Sharma of Gandhi Chowk under Piro police station and Akhilesh Upadhayaya alias Musa of Nonar under Shahpur police station had escaped from the custody. Police later arrested them. It was told that Nagina Devi was ignorant about the bomb as she was told that it was a camera which she had to give to Lamboo Sharma.

It was said that raw materials were collected from Ara and its vicinity and upper part of a handpump was used for making bomb under the supervision of Lamboo Sharma and it was made in a particular locality of Ara. During police interrogation, two named accused Anshu Kumar of Kadari under Ara Muffassil police station and Rinku Yadav of Rice Mill at Powerganj under Nawada police station, Ara, had revealed that both had purchased raw materials from Ara and its vicinity and upper part of a handpump from down market at Dhobaha and had made the powerful bomb.

Lamboo Sharma is already undergoing rigorous life imprisonment in connection with murder of two persons including an advocate on the campus of Ara Civil Court in a bomb explosion on July 10, 2009. A bomb was exploded in the advocate chamber on the campus of Ara Civil Court on July 10, 2009 to kill an eyewitness in a case Advocate Jitendra Singh but an advocate Binay Tiwari and a person of Mehan Tola under Jagdishpur police station were killed and six others injured in the bomb explosion.