GUWAHATI, Sept 27: The Gauhati High Court on Tuesday upheld the life sentence awarded by a special court to NDFB chief Ranjan Daimari in connection with serial bomb blasts of October 2008 that claimed 88 lives and injured 540 people in Assam.
The high court also rejected the appeal filed by six others while acquitting four accused who were earlier given life imprisonment by the special court.
Daimari’s lawyer Manas Sarania said an appeal will be filed against the high court order in the Supreme Court.
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The division bench of Justices Suman Shyam and Malasri Nandi upheld the sentence passed against Daimari by the special court on January 30, 2019.
Onsai Boro, Nakhra Basumatary, Indra Brahma, and Jayanti Brahma were acquitted by the high court.
Besides Daimari, the others convicted for life are George Bodo, B Tharai, Raju Sarkar, Bwisagu Basumatary, Ajay Basumatary, and Rajen Goyary.
Raju Sarkar and Bwisagu Basumatary are currently out on bail but they have to return to the jail at the earliest.
Daimari and the others were convicted by a special court in 2019 under various sections of the Explosive Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
They subsequently appealed against the order in the Gauhati High Court.
Nine serial blasts were triggered by the NDFB on October 30, 2008, which included three each in Guwahati and Kokrajhar, two in Barpeta, and one in Bongaigaon.
Daimari was arrested in Bangladesh in 2010 and was lodged in the Guwahati Central Jail after being handed over to India.
He was released on conditional bail in 2013 after both the state government and the CBI had stated before the Kamrup District and Sessions Judge that they had no objection to Daimari’s release if he was given conditional bail because of the then ongoing peace talks between the government and NDFB.
However, Daimary was re-arrested immediately after he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019.
Daimary was again released on interim bail in January 2020 for four weeks. He was taken to New Delhi to participate in the peace talks which led to the signing of a fresh Bodo Accord among the Centre, the Assam government, and all three factions of the NDFB, in the same month. (PTI)
