Life imprisonment for Basha,Ansari and 23 convicts
Founder-leader of the banned Al-Umma, S A Basha and its General secretary, Mohammed Ansari were among 23 convicts, who were awarded life imprisonment for conspiring to eliminate BJP leader, L K Advani during his visit to the city on February 14,1998,by triggering a series of bomb blasts, claiming 58 lives.K Uthirapathi,judge of the special court hearing the bomb blast cases, who had on August 1 convicted 70 of the 166 accused on major charges of criminal conspiracy and murder, pronounced the sentences for 27 convicts till Wednesday afternoon. The Judge sentenced 11 convicts to undergo life imprisonment for one term, 10 to a double life term, and awarded three life terms for one and four life terms for another for conspiracy and imprisonment ranging from three years to 125 years for various charges, while four others were awarded maximum 10 years for conspiracy and nine years to 70 years for different charges.All have to undergo the sentences concurrently and since they were in jail for the last ten years, they can serve only the remaining period of life imprisonment.Papers are being worked for remission for four, as they had undergone the sentence of 10 years, as undertrials.Accused number six, Ozir alias Abdul Ozir was awarded the maximum years of sentence--four life terms, for conspiracy and planting bombs at three places, and 124 years of imprisonment for various charges.Basha, said to be the masterbrain behind the blasts, was awarded one term life imprisonment and three years RI, Ansari was given two life sentences and more than 70 years of sentence on various charges,to run concurrently.
