The explosions at Gandhi Maidan took place shortly before Narendra Modi reached there. File

Patna:

Four men have been sentenced to death for their role in the 2013 blasts ahead of Narendra Modi’s address at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan that left six dead and 89 injured.

Of the five other convicts in the case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) special court sentenced two to life imprisonment, two to a 10-year jail term and one to seven years in jail.

On October 27, 2013, explosions hit Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan, the venue of a “Hunkar Rally” to be addressed by Mr Modi, then Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The explosions took place shortly before Mr Modi arrived.

Ahead of the blasts at Gandhi Maidan, an explosion also took place at the Patna railway station.

Investigation later revealed that the blasts were engineered by the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and a Ranchi module of its new avatar, the Indian Mujahideen.

Last week, the special NIA court convicted nine out of 10 accused in connection with the serial blasts. One of the accused was acquitted for lack of evidence.

NIA counsel and Special Public Prosecutor Lalan Prasad Singh had told news agency PTI that the agency submitted charge-sheets against 11 people. Of them, one was a minor and his case was sent to the juvenile justice board. The others were put on trial, he said.

Imtiaz Ansari, Mujibullah, Haider Ali, Firoz Aslam, Omar Ansari, Iftekhar, Ahmed Husain, Umair Siddiqui and Azharuddin were convicted in the case and one Fakhruddin was acquitted.