Source:

November 14, 2008 20:17 IST

All the 13 accused in a bomb attack on a house in 2000, in which three members of a family including a six-year old girl were injured, were found guilty by a local court in Kannur on Friday.

The Thalassery Additional Sessions Court (Fast Track-3) Judge B Ramakanth found the activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party guilty and said the sentence would be delivered on November 17.

The court found them guilty under various IPC sections including IPC 307 (attempt to murder) and Section 3 and 5 of the Explosives Substance Act.

The court dropped charges against the sixth accused K Pradeepan, following his death in a bomb explosion while handling crude bombs at Cheruvanchery last Monday.

The court examined 23 witnesses in the case.

According to the police, the incident occurred during panchayat polls on September 27, 2000, when a group of BJP/RSS workers threw a crude bomb when the girl was playing with her brother in front of her uncle's residence at Cheruvanchery.

The activists had assumed that some Congressmen were hiding in the house, a fall-out of the dispute between the rival Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress over electoral malpractices.

Besides the girl, whose right leg had to be amputated, her brother and mother were also injured.