Gorakhpur Mutth blast convict awarded capital punishment by Lucknow court

 Lucknow: Ahmad Murtaza Abbasi, who was convicted for attacking a security staff at Gorakhpur’s Gorakhnath temple with a sharp-edged weapon in April, last year, has been awarded a death sentence by anti-terror court, Lucknow.

An Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) graduate, Abbasi had tried to forcibly enter the Gorakhnath Muthh premises of which UP CM Yogi Adityanath is head priest, on April 3, last year .Abbasi was convicted by the special ATS court judge Vivekananda Sharan Pandey in Lucknow on Saturday.

In the attack, two constables of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) were injured. However, the attacker was overpowered by the security personnel and arrested. The Uttar Pradesh ATS had carried out the investigation in connection with the incident

According to the FIR lodged by head constable Vinay Kumar Mishra on April 4, last year while he was guarding Gate number 1 of the temple as security in-charge, Abbasi attacked his companion constable Anil Kumar Paswan with a sickle injuring him and tried to enter the temple forcibly. When other security guards stopped him, he also injured another sepoy Gopal Gaur and started chanting religious slogans while brandishing the sickle.

Prashant Kumar, Additional Director General of Police (ADG-Law and Order), had claimed that there could be a terror angle behind the incident. The Uttar Pradesh Home Department had also termed the incident as a part of a deep conspiracy saying that it could be a terror incident.

Later the investigation was handed over to UP ATS and investigation Officer Deputy SP Sanjai Verma filed the chargesheet in the case after the investigation.

The state government had arranged a lawyer for the accused who continued to claim that he attacked the security guards as he was mentally unstable but failed to substantiate it. The testimony of 27 witnesses led to Abbasi’s conviction in the case.