Karnataka: LeT man guilty, quantum of punishment today

BENGALURU: The 56th City Civil and Sessions Court on Tuesday pronounced guilty the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Imran Bilal, who was arrested by the CCB police in 2007, and convicted him. The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment on Wednesday.

Bilal Ahmed Kota alias Imran Jalal alias Salim, 41, who hails from Sadarbal in Srinagar in Kashmir, was arrested in an early morning operation by the then ACP of CCB, Jithendranath, and his team, on January 6, 2007. Almost nine years after his arrest, the court completed the trial and found him guilty for charges leveled against him under various sections of the IPC and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Judge Kotraiah Hiremath passed the order, while Special Public Prosecutor C.A. Ravindra argued for the government.

Bilal, who was 32 years old when arrested, had pursued a computer diploma course from a private college in the city in 1991. In 1994, after completing the course, he returned to Kashmir and worked as a supervisor in a private firm. He had joined the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front in 1990. He moved to Karnataka again in 2002, and set up a handicraft shop in Hampi at Hospet of Ballari district.

He was travelling in a private bus from Hospet to Bengaluru when the CCB team intercepted him at Goraguntepalya near Yeshwanthpur around 5 am on December 6 and arrested him. Later, the police searched his house and shop in Hampi and seized an AK-56, Chinese made hand grenades, ammunition, a satellite phone and other goods.

Bilal confessed
During the trial earlier, Bilal had confessed to the charges framed against him. His handlers in Pakistan, with whom he was in touch through satellite phone and email, had asked him to do a recce of vital installations like Vidhana Soudha, and IT firms, like Infosys and Wipro, and update them on the security arrangements at these places. He had also confessed that he went for arms training in Muzzaffarabad in Pakistani in 2005.