Three file applications before NIA court pleading guilty in 2014 Burdwan blast case

Three persons accused in the 2014 Burdwan blast case have pleaded guilty in applications filed before a special NIA court here, their lawyer Md Shajahan Hossain said here on Thursday.

Hearing in the case is likely to be taken up by the court on September 8, Hossain said.

The three accused who have filed applications pleading guilty are Md Yusuf, Zahirul Sheikh and Zia Ul Haq.

Suspected terrorists were making bombs and explosive devices inside a rented house at Khagragarh in Burdwan district when a blast occurred on October 2, 2014, killing two of them and injuring a third.

Investigations revealed that they had links with terrorist outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

The case was first taken up by the West Bengal CID and then transferred to the NIA within a few days.

Of the 31 people named accused in the case, 24 pleaded guilty on two separate occasions in 2019.

They were sentenced to five years to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment by the special NIA court.

The NIA had filed the primary chargesheet in the case in March, 2015, where it said that there was a "conspiracy of JMB, a proscribed terrorist organisation in Bangladesh, to overthrow the existing government in Bangladesh through violent terrorist acts".