A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Wednesday sentenced Bhavesh Patel and Devendra Gupta to life in jail in the Ajmer Dargah blast case.

Jaipur: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Wednesday sentenced Bhavesh Patel and Devendra Gupta to life in jail in the Ajmer Dargah blast case.

The magistrate also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Patel and Rs 5,000 on Gupta, both of whom claimed innocence.

"We will approach the High Court," Lokesh Sharma, Patel's advocate, told IANS.

"We are innocent and it is a political conspiracy against us," Gupta told the media while coming out of the court.

The court found the three guilty for criminal conspiracy and action intended to outrage religious feelings besides charging them under the Explosive Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Three of the 13 accused are still missing.

On 8 March, the court had convicted Patel, Gupta and Joshi in the case while acquitting others including Swami Aseemanand. Joshi died soon after the blast.

The case was handed over to the ATS Rajasthan and was later transferred to NIA which re-registered the case with the NIA police station in New Delhi on 6 April, 2011.

There were as many as 149 witnesses in the case and 451 documents were examined and the NIA filed three supplementary chargesheets in the case.

The blast on 11 October, 2007 inside the premises of the shrine of Sufi saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chisti at Ajmer around 6.15 pm at the time of Roza Iftaar, had left three pilgrims dead and 15 others injured.

The revered shrine is visited by thousands of Muslims and non-Muslims, both from India and abroad.

With inputs from IANS