Coimbatore: The founder leader of proscribed Al-Umma S A Basha and the outfit's general secretary Mohammed Ansari, along with eight key convicts, were today awarded life imprisonment in the 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts case.

K Uthirapathi, the judge of the Special Court hearing the blast cases, who had earlier convicted 70 of the 166 accused on charges of criminal conspiracy and murder, pronounced sentences for the first 10 convicts.

The convicts would undergo imprisonment for periods ranging from 17 to 125 years, based on the charges against them, he said. However, all the convicts will undergo the sentences concurrently, Uthirapathi said.

Since the convicts were in the jail for the last 10 years, they can serve only the remaining period of the life imprisonment.

While Basha was awarded life imprisonment and three years rigorous imprisonment, Ansari was given two life sentences and imprisonment of 75 years.

The blasts, triggered on February 14,1998, during the visit of BJP leader L K Advani, had claimed 58 lives. 

Source : PTI