By IANS,
Thalassery (Kerala) : A court here Monday handed down jail terms of up to 10 years to 13 people for a crude bomb attack in Kerala’s Kannur district eight years ago in which a girl lost her leg. The victim, however, said she had nothing to gain by the culprits being punished now.
The Thalassery Additional Sessions Court Judge B. Ramakanth Monday sentenced one of the convicts to 10 years in jail and the remaining 12 were given five-year prison terms. He had last week convicted the 13 accused.
The judge also ordered a Rs.200,000 compensation for the 14-year-old Aasna who lost her leg and Rs.100,000 for her mother, who was also injured in the attack.
But the victim said the verdict made no difference to her.
“I am neither happy nor sad because I don’t gain anything from the verdict,” Aasna told reporters.
During the panchayat (civic body) polls Sep 27, 2000, a group of BJP and RSS workers threw a crude bomb at Aasna’s uncle’s house at Cheruvanchery near here when she was playing with her brother in front of the building.
The workers had apparently hurled the bomb thinking that a few Congress leaders were in the house.
BJP leader M.T. Ramesh, meanwhile, said they would appeal against the verdict as the real culprits had not been arrested.
The court dropped charges against the another accused K. Pradeepan, following his death in an explosion last week while he was allegedly handling crude bombs at Cheruvanchery.