A local court has sentenced 13 BJP-RSS workers to undergo rigorous imprisonment for various terms in an attempt to murder case in which three people, including a six-year-old girl, were injured in a bomb attack at Cheruvanchery in September 2000.

The Thalassery court, which found the 13 guilty on Friday last, pronounced the sentence on Monday. The court sentenced the fifth accused N Ramachandran (35) to 10-year rigorous imprisonment for handling explosives while the rest to jail terms for five years.

Delivering sentences for varying terms under IPC sections including 307 (attempt to murder) and provisions of Explosives Substance Act, Thalassery District Sessions (Fast Track III) Court Judge B Ramakanth also imposed a fine of Rs 80,000 on Ramachandran while the rest should pay Rs 40,000 fine each.

All the sentences would run concurrently. The court said that of the fine amount collected from those convicted, Rs two lakh should be paid to the girl Ashna, who had to suffer permanant disability after her right leg, which was injured, had to be amputated, and Rs 1 lakh to her mother who was also injured along with her younger brother.

The court dropped charges against K Pradeepan, the sixth accused in the case, following his death in an accidental bomb explosion near a temple at Cheruvanchery here on Nov 10 last.

The incident occurred during panchayat elections on September 27, 2000, when a group of BJP-RSS workers, protesting poll-related irregularities, hurled a crude bomb in a plot where a six-year old girl Ashna, a class-I student, was playing along with her brother in front of her uncle's residence.

