2012 Maoist arms seizure case: NIA court sentences 3 convicts to 10-12 years of RI

New Delhi, Dec 5 (IANS) A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Patna has sentenced three accused, convicted in a 2012 Maoist arms and ammunition seizure case of Bihar's Aurangabad, to rigorous imprisonment.

A NIA spokesperson here said that two of the accused, Udit Narayan Singh aka Tulsi aka Tufan and Akhilesh Singh aka Manoj Singh, have each been sentenced to 12 years Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) with Rs 5000 fine under several sections of UA(P) Act, and 10 years RI with Rs 5000 fine each under several sections of UA(P) Act, Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act.

The official said that all sentences will run concurrently.

While the third accused, Arjunji aka Mani Yadav, has been sentenced to 10 years RI with Rs 5,000 fine under several sections of the UA(P) Act and the Explosive Substances Act.

"All three will be liable to additional 3 months of simple imprisonment in case of default in payment of fine, as per the quantum of the sentence pronounced by the court today," the official said.

The accused had been charged by the NIA under various sections of UA(P) Act, Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act in the case.

The trio was convicted on Saturday by the Special court, which had found them guilty of being in possession of prohibited and non-prohibited arms and ammunition as well as chemicals for making IEDs and bombs for use in terror attacks by the banned CPI (Maoist) outfit. The accused, all active cadres of CPI (Maoist), were also found in possession of cash collected as levy money for carrying out terrorist activities.

A case was registered on March 26, 2012, a day after raids were conducted at the houses of the three accused. The raids were carried out after secret inputs came that some active cadres of CPI (Maoist) had assembled in Aurangabad to execute some terrorist activities.

During the raids, the police had seized prohibited arms, magazines, huge quantity of ammunition, RPG grenades, chemical substances, Bolero vehicle, mobile sets, Indian currency of face value Rs 3.34 lakh, as well as Maoist literature and other incriminating documents, the official said.

All the three accused were arrested after the raids. Subsequent investigations by the police led to the filing of a charge sheet as well as a supplementary charge sheet against the trio.

The NIA, took over the case on March 19, 2013, conducted further investigations and filed another supplementary charge sheet on June 6, 2015 in the court of the Special Judge, NIA, Patna.