Bihar: NIA Court Hands Down Prison Sentences in Attempted Railway Bombing Case

Patna: The NIA Special Court in Patna on Saturday sentenced six accused individuals to rigorous imprisonment and imposed fines under various penal sections in a 2016 case involving the planting of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) on the railway track near Ghorasahan railway station in Bihar.

The accused were involved in planting a pressure cooker IED on the railway track on the night of September 30 in an attempt to blast a passenger train coming from Narkatiaganj. Fortunately, the IED was spotted by local residents and successfully defused before it could explode.

During the investigation, the local police established the involvement of the following accused: Umashankar Raut (also known as Umashankar Patel or Raju Patel), Gajendra Sharma (also known as Gajendra Thakur), Rakesh Kumar Yadav (also known as Rakesh), Mukesh Kumar Yadav (also known as Mukesh), Motilal Paswan (also known as Moti), and Ranjay Kumar Sah (also known as Ranjay).

Initially, three of the accused were arrested by the local police, while two others were nabbed later by the NIA on different occasions after it took over the probe in January 2017. The sixth accused surrendered in February 2017. The chargesheet against all accused was filed by the NIA in July 2017.

On September 24, 2024, the NIA Court found the accused guilty. Today, the court announced the sentences against them under relevant sections of the IPC, UA(P) Act, Explosive Substances Act, and Railway Act.

The sentences pronounced by the court range from 5 to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment along with fines, which will run concurrently, with an extension of 3 months of imprisonment in case of non-payment of fines.