Tirupati: The Tirupati additional senior civil court pronounced its judgement on Thursday in the 2003 Alipiri bomb blast, sentencing the three accused to four years in prison and fining them Rs 500 each. They were convicted under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code for attempt to murder and relevant Sections for unlawful assembly and causing grievous injury. Tirupati additional senior civil judge, O. Venkata Nageswar Rao, held the three accused G. Rammohan Reddy, 41; S. Narasimha Reddy, 40, and 41-year-old P. Chandra alias Keshav, guilty.
In October 2003, then Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who was on his way to Tirumala, was injured in a claymore mine attack by the Naxals on his convoy. During investigation, a chargesheet was filed naming 33 people as accused in the case, including 29 who belonged to the erstwhile People’s War Group Naxals. In the first trial, four persons, including Ramaswamy Reddy, Nagarjuna, Panduranga Reddy alias Sagar and Kollam Gangi Reddy were pronounced guilty by the court, which sentenced them to seven-year rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 5000 each on October 29, 2010.
But, as the convicts appealed to the HC, the case was transferred to the 4th Additional District Sessions court in Tirupati for a re-trial, and while the conviction was upheld for Ramaswamy Reddy and Nagarjuna, Kollam Gangi Reddy and Sagar were acquitted in November 2012. Meanwhile, a second case was initiated against three accused, including G. Rammohan Reddy, S. Narasimha Reddy and P. Chandra in 2011. Though the trio was out on anticipatory bail, after close to three years of trial, the Tirupati court pronounced its verdict on Thursday, holding all three accused guilty. Meanwhile, out of the total 33 persons named in the chargesheet, five have been convicted in two cases, 11 are dead, two have been acquitted and the police is said to have arrested K.K. Krishnappa alias Saketh in Bengaluru. Fourteen persons are still at large.
