Terror plot convict gets life imprisonment

A Bengaluru court on Wednesday sentenced Bilal Ahmed Kota alias Imran Jalal, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative, to life imprisonment. He is convicted for hatching a criminal conspiracy to attack Information Technology companies and other installations in Bengaluru.

Additional city civil court judge Kotrayya M Hiremath had convicted Bilal on all charges, including criminal conspiracy, possession of assault rifles, ammunition and hand grenades on Tuesday.

The court sentenced Bilal to undergo life imprisonment, which is the maximum punishment awarded for the charges proved against him and slapped a fine of Rs 2.75 lakh on him.

Prime accused in the case, Bilal was arrested by the anti-terrorism cell of the Bengaluru police on January 5, 2007.

Five other accused in the case are absconding, including Pakistani nationals Alqama alias Lala Khan, Khalid and Azam Cheema. A native of Jammu and Kashmir, Bilal had travelled to Pakistan in September 2005 using a fake passport. Bilal had received directions from LeT commanders to carry out a recce of IT companies, Vidhana Soudha and the airport in Bengaluru.

After his return from Pakistan, Bilal created e-mail IDs to communicate with his handlers there. The police had retrieved 68 pages of e-mail printouts from a cyber centre at Hampi in Ballari district.

“In one of the e-mails, Bilal had requested LeT’s operational commander Lala Khan to financially help the family of Tariq Dar, who was arrested in the Delhi blast case. In another e-mail, Bilal confirmed receiving Rs 50,000 from Khan,” an official said.

Bilal was arrested at Yeshwantpur in Bengaluru, when he was alighting from a private bus that arrived from Hampi. The police had seized an AK-47 rifle, 200 rounds of ammunition and a satellite phone from him.